


Harriet Potter and the House Elves of Great Britain

by selenaquana



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harry hides her true self, Harry owns Hogwarts (kind-of), Harry's only Griffindor to avoid murdering somebody, House-Elf Hive Mind, ICW politics, Kind-of-evil!Dumbledore, Meddling Wizard(s), Mentions of lots of abuse, More to the world than Britain, Muggle/Wizard Relations, Muggles trump Magic, Other, Pack Dynamics, Pack Family, Strong Female Characters, manipulative!Dumbledore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 15:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 36
Words: 61,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18574411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selenaquana/pseuds/selenaquana
Summary: House-Elves are far stronger than any wizard will admit. So, when Dumbledore sets up baby Harry to be abused and molded as a weapon, the Potter Elves do what they can to combat him. The ensuing chain of events cause the entire wizarding world to tremble.Or, Harry refuses to play along with the plans of scumbags, and proves why child-soldiers with immense magical power are a bad idea.





	1. Halloween night

**Author's Note:**

> You know the drill. Any characters, places, things or ideas you recognize come from J. K. Rowling. I'm just playing in her sandbox a bit.
> 
> Constructive criticism appreciated!

Avada Kedavra. The killing curse. Derived from the Aramaic “let this thing be destroyed”. The spell that means death. Everyone knows that. Its why the spell is outlawed. No good can come from it. No positive outcome. Just harm, for the caster and the target.

Except for one small child on Halloween.

People speculate why that child was spared. Why she was so special.

None of them realized the truth. The most important truth of that night. For unlike every other victim of the killing curse, Harriet Potter’s mother had been a life guard. 

Why would that make a difference? What would that change? 

Everything. 

For Lily Potter was also Lady Potter, and that meant she directed the five Potter elves.

And she taught them CPR.

Such a simple thing, and it changed their world forever.

On that Halloween, when the Dark Lord Voldemort cast the killing curse, it hit a shield created by Lily’s love. The shield split the effect of the curse, so that half hit the child and the other half the would-be-murderer. For the man known as Voldemort, that was enough. Enough to split the crack in his pitiful remaining bit of humanity wide. Enough to send half of a half of a half of a half of a half of a half of his consciousness spinning to Albania, and the other, final bit to the cooling body in the crib.

Emmy, of course, did as she was taught the moment she got to the room.

She dove to the crib, and the rapidly cooling body, and started to compress the little mistress’s chest. 

She pushed and pushed and pushed and prayed to her ancestors that Lady Lily (they weren’t allowed to call her mistress, because that was an insult where Lady Lily was from) had taught her right. 

That the curse just froze the body, and if you got blood pumping quickly enough, the person would wake up.

She pumped, and prayed, and when she felt the little baby take her own breadth, she cheered. 

Miss Harry was alive. Alive alive alive alive! Emmy and Callie and Parky and Smithy and Willie would not be alone! They would have a Little Lady to serve, and live with Doggie until Little Lady was old enough to be the new Lady. They would protect her, just like Lady Lily said to. 

A moment after Miss Harry was breathing, the other elves popped in. Emmy glanced around at her fellows. 

Smithy and Callie had neat sackcloth togas, each stained but well loved. Smithy still had dirt on his ears, and Callie smelled of yummy things cooking and oranges. They were responsible for the Potter farms, and had been mates for several years. They didn’t make elflets though; three Potters were far too few for five elves to care for, so they agreed to wait until there were more little sirs and ma’ams to support more elves.

Parky wore a well starched suit made of old sheets, Potter crest carefully stitched onto the brim of his newsboy cap. He was in charge of the Potter Manor, while the Lord and Lady had to hide.

And Willie…. was Willie. He was the runt of his litter, and not very smart. His first family had given him clothes when he couldn’t learn to talk, and Mistress Euphemia had taken him in. He did very little cleaning, his magic was to weak, but was good with the animals, and always tried his hardest. Other family’s elves had been mean to him, thought he was a bad elf because of how he was born. But not Potter Elves, no no no. Potter elves stick together, and protect Willie so he can serve their family as best he can, in his own way, just like Mistress Euphemia told them. 

“Lady Lily…” Callie whimpered to the spill of red hair before the crib. Parky immediately ran forward, and dove over the corpse, trying to do for the Lady what Emmy had done for the Heiress. 

Willie strode forward, and tugged Parky off as his desperation turned to despair, and Smithy held his mate while she sobbed. 

Suddenly, a big popping was heard outside the cottage. 

The elves looked to Lady Lily, using the silent hive mind of their kind to process what had happened. Lady Lily and Lord James were dead. The Evil Man was gone but not, a bit of him attached to the Little Lady. Someone was coming. Hide hide hide! A good elf goes unseen!

So, when Doggie ran upstairs and picked up the now crying Little Lady from the crib, they stayed silent. When he sobbed over the dead bodies of his family, they stayed unseen. When the big shaggy man showed up and took the Little Lady to Dumblydoor, they popped back to their stations, content that the Little Lady was safe, and they would be called when they were needed.

Except one. 

Willie did not trust Dumblydoor. Oh, he might not be smart or able to talk with the other elves right, but Willie knew bad people when he saw them. That was how he ended up on the streets, after all. Bad people.

So he followed Shaggy Man to Hoggywarts. 

He watched as Madam Poppy looked over the Little Lady and found the bit of the Evil Man. 

He watched Dumblydoor cast all sorts of spells on the Little Lady, and when Dumblydoor turned on Madam Poppy and the Shaggy Man. 

He watched as Dumbly bound up the Little Lady’s magic, as her hair turned from the light brown of a contented Metamorphmagus to the dark black of her father, as the connection between the Potter Elves and their Lady was muted. 

And he watched as the Little Lady, not even old enough for sentences, was left on a doorstep in the freezing cold, no protection to speak of. 

He guarded her, that night, and watched as Lady Lily’s sister dragged the bundle inside. 

As the muggles fought over what to do. As they agreed to keep her and “stomp the magic out”. 

As the Little Lady was shoved in a tiny cupboard to be out of the way. 

All this Willie saw, and remembered.


	2. Four years later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The elves twist magic to suit their Lady's needs, and Harry learns to ignore the world's bullshit in favor of her own desires.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the drill. J. K. R.'s sandbox, I'm borrowing it.

Harriet Potter disliked children. It was not necessarily their existence she had a problem with, but rather, their rampant immaturity. Such thoughts were, perhaps, to advanced for a child of five, but they were the best way to hide from what was happening to her. To hide her mind from the punches and kicks her cousin and the other boys were raining down. To keep the pain at bay, like Willie had taught.

Her vast array of memories helped in this. Vernon brings out the belt? Look over one of Riddle’s old first year essays and compare it to his seventh year knowledge for errors. Petunia going nuts with the frying pan? Start doing upper level arithmancy calculations from Riddle’s seventh year.

Some people might find it disturbing that she hid from the world in the mind of the man who killed her parents, but she honestly couldn’t give a fuck. The elves had pulled the remains of her mother’s blood protection, tattered and frayed from where Dumby had ripped them apart to stick them to her aunt and cousin, and wrapped them around the horcrux instead. So, Harry had access to all of the memories and knowledge of Tom Riddle, but none of the emotional baggage. She could know everything he did, up until the moment that he killed her parents, but the loving magic of her elves wrapped around her psyche, preventing any damage to her own soul in the process.

The elves had been hesitant about helping her when Willie finally got them to understand; none of them knew anything about wards or blood magic or how to stop a narcissistic headmaster from ruining a child’s life. But as time went on and invisible eyes saw what the Dursleys did, the bond Dumby had locked called out to reattach, to help, to protect their Lady.

And so, the elves started to reach out. They were still looking into how to get past Dumby’s alarms, to get child services involved (the last few times child services got involved, Dumby just obliviated everyone and dumped Harry back where she started). Until then, Harry would tough out the long days of labor beyond her skills, dodge as many of her cousin’s punches as she could, and hide in the minds of her elves as much as possible. They had let her into their bond fully, in a way many masters never knew was an option. They couldn’t interfere to much, Dumby would find out and put up wards to keep them away if they did excessive magic at the Dursleys, but they could make sure Harry was loved and nurtured, that she knew the names and faces of her ancestors. 

Of course, the elves had no idea this would warp Harry’s magic. That it would cause her core to shift frequencies, from that of a witch to that of an elf. Elf magic, Harry had discovered, was far less complicated and used far less energy for simple tasks. Of course, it was also more instinctual, and lacked the range of uses that wizard magic had, but between the elf magic and Riddle’s memories, the young girl already could do most cleaning and cooking wandlessly. This left her plenty of time to zone out and attend Hogwarts, as well as study muggle subjects several years above her age group, using the library and a set of encyclopedias the Dursleys ignored. 

In fact, Harry had an ongoing secret correspondence with one Severus Snape about potions research and her own (possibly lifted from a certain dark lord) theories on different advancements.

So no, the young girl being beaten into the dirt was not happy by any means, but she was surviving. She had five elves that loved her, the equivalent of an adult mind that nobody expected, and someday, she would go to Hogwarts. She would gather intelligence. Spy on her enemies. Get her godfather out of prison. Take out Voldemort’s Horcruxes. And then, she would make her enemies pay for every bruise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> So I'm debating how to go about updating. If I go to fast, I'm worried about rushing to keep up. To slow, and I worry people might not realize exactly how my writing works and be disappointed later. Right now, I'm going to do it by chapter length; the longer the last chapter, the longer the wait for the next one. Does that seem good, or should I go about it some other way?
> 
> Thanks for the comments, and kudos!
> 
> Constructive criticism always appreciated!


	3. The Chamber of Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> J. K.'s, just borrowing.

Harry looked down at the diary. Such an innocuous item. Who would ever expect it to hold one of the darkest wizards of all time inside? Certainly not the Weasleys. 

She had spent months looking for it, ever since the first attack on Mrs. Norris. The moment she had the chance, Harry had ventured into the chamber, and explained to the basilisk Mab that she was the Lady Slytherin by right of conquest (thank you Mum) and the diary an imposter. Mab was furious that an imposter was sicking her on students, and quickly agreed to help. All it took from there was for Mab to hold Ginny and alert Harry the second Tom tried again, and one stunning spell later, the horcrux was Harry’s. 

The diary was the hardest one to find, too. She knew where the locket and ring were, and was working on disabling the traps. She got the diadem her first week. She was convincing the dying Lord Black to trust her, to make her the Lady Regent until Sirius could be cleared. Once she had control of the House of Black, she could sue the Lestranges for Bellatrix’s belongings, and thereby gain the cup. And once she had the horcruxes, all she needed to do was trick Voldemort into a new body, easily accomplished with the help of her friend’s “rat”. Of course, he would have no idea he was leading his master into a trap….

Harry wrapped the diary in special enchanted cloth, embroidered with runes and symbols. This... this would be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! A few short ones on the way, just trying to knock them out. Criticism appreciated!


	4. The Prisoner of Azcaban

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> J. K. 's basis, my own tweaks.

Buckbeak circled down to the edge of the forest, allowing the three passengers to disembark; two girls and a man. 

“Thank you.” Sirius Black said, reaching out and clutching his goddaughter to his bony chest. “I don’t know how I can ever….”

“Stay alive.” The muffled voice muttered into his rags. (Really, did everyone have to be so dramatic about this?)

“Right. Right.” Sirius said, pulling back to look at his goddaughter again. A moment of awkward silence passed, before Harry jumped into Sirius’s arms a second time, high enough to put her lips to his ear. 

“Potter Manor is just at the edge of ---shire.” She whispered; low enough Hermione couldn’t hear. “Go there, tell no one. Especially Dumbledore. There are things going on that you don’t know.”

Harry pulled back and started to play with her braid, the shy smile on her face completely contrasting with her intense prior words. “When will I see you again?” she asked.

Sirius gulped, and seemed to gather himself for a moment, and responded, “I’ll send you a letter.”

“Where will you go?” Hermione nosed in. Honestly, if Harry didn’t need her to cover her own intelligence…

“Somewhere warm. Spain, maybe. I hear Majorca’s beautiful.” the escape hedged.

With a doglike shake, Harry’s godfather was back on the hippogriff. Harry waved to him until he disappeared into the clouds, before giving in to Hermione’s insistence and following her friend back into the school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another! Criticism always welcome!


	5. The Graveyard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cedric is very confused and Harry brings a gun to a wand fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Includes characters and ideas belonging to J.K. Rowling.

“Cedric…” Harry said to the unfairly cute boy holding her up. “I need you to trust me.”

He seemed startled by the comment, her request likely not what he had expected. She pushed on regardless. “There is more going on here than anyone knows; hundreds of lives are at stake. So I need you to do as I say without question. Can you do that?

He stared into her eyes for several seconds. 

“Yes.” He finally said. “I trust you. What do you need me to do?”

“Touch the cup at the same time as me. Then, when we get to the other side, open the door in the back of the nearest headstone, and pull out the invisibility cloak. DO NOT INTERFERE, just watch. Even if they kill me, do not get involved.”

“Kill you! What do you…” The words were ripped from his mouth as she shoved his hand onto the portkey.

They landed in a cemetery, old and decrepit. Headstones were arranged in ragged clumps, some nocked over, others worn to illegibility by wind and rain. A fine mist wafted over the grass, a cloying dampness that stuck in the two student’s throats.

“The cloak. Don’t save me. Go!” Harry whispered, before crouching towards the largest headstone.

Cedric waited for a moment, before reaching behind the headstone... sure enough, a silvery swatch of fabric fell out, pooling around his hands like mercury. He figured that the girl should have won the tournament, and clearly understood the circumstance better than he did. He wrapped it about himself and followed Harry.

He soon regretted that decision. 

He watched her get tied to a tombstone.

He watched her blood used in a potion.

He watched that…thing step forth.

He watched Voldemort (oh God it’s Voldemort he’s supposed to be dead I’m dead we’re dead oh God) summon his followers.

And then, he watched the ropes vanish from Harry’s shoulders. 

He watched her pull a black device of some kind from her belt and point it at the knees of the farthest Death Eaters.

He watched her tie up Voldemort and disarm him.

He watched her in motion, exchanging the black weapon with a wand or sword or dagger, occasionally throwing flashes of silver as small stars appeared in the black robed bodies (where in hell was she getting all these weapons?)

He watched her tie a rope around each of the crying, bleeding Death Eaters at her feet, as well as their now unconscious and chained lord, and a small brown rat. 

“Cedric.” She spoke up, looking in his direction, as if she could see right through the cloak. “Come here. We’re going back.”

He shrugged the heavy cloak from his shoulders. 

“How… You…”

“I know, Cedric. It’s a long story, I’ll tell you later, but right now, we’re on a timer.”

He stopped a few steps from her, as she windlessly summoned the Triwizard cup and set it hovering (wandless magic of course she can do wandless magic she’s Harry freaking Potter and just took down Voldemort why not).

“Just… why did you need me here?”

“A witness.” 

Cedric frowned. Harry shook her head, sending the bits of hair that had escaped her long braid flapping. 

“Look, if I go back telling people what I did, will they believe it?”

“But… You did.”

“Yeah, I also found the person who killed thirteen muggles and had the closest thing I have to a father tortured for over a decade last year. And I was told it was impossible, I was delusional and said parental figure was going to have his soul sucked out for my troubles. No. Just…no. And granted, two extra witnesses didn’t help last time, but with everything else I’ve set in motion it cant hurt. Now come on Cedric, let’s go!”

And for the second time that hour, she yanked his hand to the portkey, and the world swirled away.


	6. The DMLE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amelia Bones learns just what has been going on the last decade and a half.

Amelia Bones was a simple woman. She loved four things above all others; her niece, her job, good whisky, and her cat, in that order.  
  
It would be no surprise, then, that she held her co-workers to exacting standards. The Auror offices were always spic and span; all files in warded drawers when not in active use, all cubicles neat and tidy. So, as she walked through her department that summer morning, she expected her own office to be just as she left it. 

Boy was she wrong.

She walked in to crates lining her walls, both the wooden and plastic sort. On her desk, displacing the picture of Susan and ornamental badger (Go Hufflepuff!) were three objects; an envelope, a pensive, and a book. 

Amelia walked forwards slowly, wand out and eyes wide for danger. After casting every detection charm she knew at the objects and room in general (which took almost half an hour), Madam Bones finally picked up the letter and opened it. It read;

 

_Dear Madam Bones,_  
  
_My name is Harry Potter (see the seals at the bottom to verify) and I am providing you evidence of the rampant corruption within the wizarding world._  
  
_Now, to explain exactly how I know this would take a good deal of time, so I have put together the pensive on your desk. Within, you will find, in chronological order, memories that summarize what I have discovered. The crates are filled with corroborating evidence; the book indexes them by the people, places, and events of relevance, as well as dates and the crime(s) to which each piece of evidence pertains. Please watch the memories first, as they will provide context for the rest of the evidence. I understand that pensive memories are not admissible in court, but examining them outside of court to establish events and understand circumstances is permissible, and it’s really the fastest way to deal with the situation._  
  
_DO NOT TELL ANYONE WHAT IS GOING ON UNTILL TONIGHT. I know it seems strange, but this is the first time I have been able to attempt taking down these people, and I cant have my one chance compromised, you understand. IF YOU GET INVOLVED BEFORE THE FINAL TRIWIZARD TASK IS COMPLETED THE CHAMPION’S LIVES WILL BE IN DANGER. The contract that binds us also binds several of the individuals you will likely be arresting today, and preventing them from fulfilling their end could result…badly…for the rest of us._  
  
_Please Madam Bones, I implore you. These people have ruined dozens of lives. Please be the honorable woman your niece assures me you are, and do what is right._  
  
_Sincerely,_  
  
_Harriet Potter_  
_Titania Elvana_  
_Heiress and Champion of Gryffindor_  
_Heiress Slytherin_  
_Heiress Potter_  
_Heiress Peverell_  
_Heiress Gaunt_  
_Heiress Hufflepuff_  
_Heiress Ravenclaw_  
_Heiress Black_

 

Madam Bones stared at the list of titles and accompanying half page of magical seals before shaking her head. How that girl ended up with ten titles was a question for much later. 

Trepidaciously, Madam Bones set aside the letter, and leaned her face into the pensive.

What followed was the most disturbing set of scenes she had ever seen in her long career, and she worked on the Longbottom case.

She watched a young Dumbledore and Grindelwald (They were together! What the FUCK!) design the Knights of Walpurgis manifesto.

She watched Dumbledore kill his little sister in his home.

She watched Dumbledore burn Tom Riddle’s possessions.

She watched a drunken crackpot spout some meaningless drivel about defeating a dark lord

She watched Peter Pettigrew named the Potter’s Secret Keeper.

She watched Dumbledore and Crouch convince (with magical encouragement) Bagnold that Sirius Black didn’t need a trial.

She watched baby Harry dumped on a doorstep like trash.

She watched memory after memory of the beatings, starving, and impossible chores.

She watched social workers obliviated, a foster father defending Harry struck down and obliviated into catatonia protecting the seven year old child.

She watched Dumbledore put students in danger during Harry’s first year, and discovered Voldemort taught at Hogwarts for Dumbledore’s own amusement.

She watched students exposed to a basilisk (which should have been obvious during the first set of petrifications decades before, let alone the second). 

She watched Peter Pettigrew confess in front of three children and a professor, and then Fudge trying to have an innocent man Kissed for protecting his goddaughter. (Black was protecting Potter, it all made so much sense now, and they tried to kill him for it!)

She watched Barty Crouch Junior infiltrate the school.

She watched Dumbledore put Potter’s name into the cup.

And Bones felt her world crumble around her.

When the hours of memories were finally over, she poured herself a drink and contemplated the situation. Dumbledore was abusing students, grooming them into weapons.

He let Voldemort into the school.

No, lured him into the school. There was no way that gauntlet was anything other than a test.

He had Black locked up for being an Auror, for doing his job and trying to catch the Death Eater who killed his friends.

He had a child abused (Oh God, that poor girl) for a decade.

And he sent her back there. Every. Year. 

She tossed back the glass, and walked towards the door. Potter was remarkably talented, to collect this much evidence, if any of it was even half as damning as those memories. But getting through it would take time. So, for now, Bones would trust the girl’s information about the Triwizard contract.

She cast a sonorous on herself, and stood on the stool she kept by her door for such purposes. “Attention!” the deep voice boomed across the department. “All cases that are not maters of life and death are suspended. I want every Auror and prosecutor over here now!”

Thirty seconds later, she had all available personnel assembled. 

“Right, listen up.” The final mutters died down. “None of this is to leave this room. I just received evidence that Albus Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge are both engaged in a criminal conspiracy.” Shouts of outrage were heard, accusations flung about, before a loud bang silenced the room again. “I have in my office evidence of their crimes. We have.” She checked the clock on the wall. “Eight hours to get through it. Hop to people, I want a list of charges for every crime in evidence stat! And each person who brings me damning evidence gets a bottle of Ogden’s! Go!”

And with that, the entire Auror office proceeded to have their own worlds rearranged, as the bulk of wizarding Britain’s law enforcement found the various crimes committed by their leaders.


	7. The Ritual

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world goes entirely bonkers and everyone is confused

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer in Chapter 1

Kingsley Shaklebolt wanted to throw up as he turned through pages of muggle social services repots. Lash marks, broken bones, concussions. Words branded into her arms and chest. Psychological disorders up the wazzu. Those monsters should have never been allowed near a child.

But they were.

And Dumbledore knew.

Kingsley had never cared much for the man; respected him, of course, but the way people seemed to semi-worship him always seemed off. 

And now he knew why.

Because Harry Potter (and what sorry state was the world in that a fourteen-year-old does a better job of investigating and rooting out corruption than law enforcement?) had evidence that he was grooming students. Training select children from age eleven, sometimes even earlier, to be obedient to him and die on his whim.

It was all revolting.

So, Kingsley worked as quickly and thoroughly as he could.

Like all the others working the case, he wrote summaries of what he read (even though Potter’s ledger already did that, far better than theses scattered reports would in all likelihood) and passed them to the lawyer indexing it all. 

When Bones finally called it quits, it was past eight.

“Alright, listen up! At this point, we have enough evidence to arrest both Crouches, Fudge, and Dumbledore, and they’re all in one place. Now, Potter’s memories mentioned something big planned for tonight, so I want an extra team ready to secure her and anyone else at risk. I want a team escorting and protecting each house, and I want the teachers interviewed ASAP. Wood, go get St. Mungo’s to send a team, just in case. Let’s move people!”

Three quarters of the department picked up their things and moved to the aparation points, wands at the ready as they went to the gates of Hogwarts. 

When they found the stadium, some kind of magic dome was over the pitch. Knee-high boxes were scattered on the field, thousands of them. In front of the stands was a large, floating image. It went through some of what the evidence described; showing the public a few of the misdeeds committed by Fudge and Dumbledore. Some spectators sat in silent shock, others shouted denials and obscenities. The worst was the students.

When they saw it was Dumbledore who entered Potter, the majority of the student body seemed to turn on the headmaster. Madam Bones sent a team in to arrest and protect the man, just to make sure one of the pissed off Hufflepuffs couldn’t wring his neck. 

It took half an hour of dealing with the crowd before Kingsley and the aurors could finish up the arrests. Someone arrested Moody to (who was apparently Barty Crouch Jr. under Polyjuice because that was the world they all lived in now) while entire teams stunned and bound Dumbledore. The entire event, Fudge was screeching about how he “can’t be arrested, I’m the Minister of Magic!” blah blah blah.

When Kingsley’s team finally approached the dome, just after the memory display ended, he got his first good look at what the other side held. Coffins. Hundreds, probably thousands of them, all lined up in neat rows. As he watched, dozens of house elves popped in, with more and more coffins to add to the pile.

“What do you think they’re for?” Wood asked. Kingsley liked Wood; not the smartest Auror in the crop, but loyal to a fault and graced with a good deal of common sense. His little brother was a keeper for Pudlemere United, and anybody who spoke with Wood could see he adored the brat.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it.” Dawlish muttered on the other side. 

“For now, just keep wands ready. The ledger suggested Potter’s going to show up on that field any second, so be alert.” Scrimonger snapped. 

Eventually, the coffins seemed to taper off. The field was covered, all but a small circle in the center, where the elves were doing… something.

“A ritual!” Candace Fawley shouted down the line. “They’re building a circle!” 

“Good eye. ” Scrimonger confirmed. “Any idea what kind.”

“Well judging by all the bodies…” Dawlish muttered. 

“Shit. We need to evacuate the civilians.” Wood said.

“Wood, tell Bones we suspect necromancy.” Rufus snapped.

“On it.”

“Alright boys.”

“Hey.”

“And Fawley.” The team chuckled. “don’t let them bite you. Take ‘em down hard and fast, fire and reductos are best. Keep them from the school at all…”

Just then, two dozen people dropped in the middle of the field. All but the two in the center were wearing black robes, and something silver glinted under a few of the hoods. Several had bloodstains clearly visible. 

“Do you know the origin of that curse you love so much?” one of the figures in the middle (Potter, most likely) asked the bald man kneeling at her feet, wrapped in chains. “No? You should. You see, Avada Kedavra was first developed in Greece by a seer. She predicted that the muggles would blame her children for a drought the following summer, and created a curse to protect her babies. Her youngest was crippled, and to slow to make it down the mountain to safety in time. So, this curse, would put their bodies into a kind of sleep. They would not dream, their hearts would not beat, and they would need no breath. Their consciousness, their very souls some say, would be held in trust by her, as the caster, until she could preform a ritual to wake them up.

“Over time, it became a favored curse of mothers to protect their children. They could leave the bodies behind and return later. The spell was not without flaws of course, if the caster died the souls they held would move on with them, but it saved hundreds of lives. And then, someone realized it could be used just as easily on enemies. It could be cast on a prisoner, keeping them from death until they were needed with no chance of escape. Over time and after many dark lords, the original purpose was forgotten, and the spell’s perceived nature changed. As the rituals to return souls faded into legend, the curse designed to protect children came to be seen and the most evil of all. The killing curse.”

The remaining civilians and aurors gasped, shocked into stone statues. 

“It took me years to find out what the extra bonds were, amidst my House Elves. To realize that they were still bonded to my parents. And that Elves only bond to the living. Years more to discover what that meant for me, my family. But sure enough, two years ago, I found a journal detailing the truth in the Chamber of Secrets. It’s ironic, really. You only were able to achieve immortality through murders that you never actually committed. If you had only read the journals your ancestor left, you would have known that there exists a ritual to bring most of your victims back.

“The difficult thing about that ritual though is that the person holding the soul needs to be whole to release them. So, if they, say, made horcruxes to avoid death… well. Lucky for me, yours were easy to find. So, let us begin, shall we?”

The other figure, the Diggory boy, walked to the barrier during this speech, and slipped through, immediately taken into the care of the healers. 

Potter shed her red robes, revealing a white shift underneath. She placed her hand on the bald man’s head, and she sang. 

The song was wordless, seemed to communicate on a deeper level. She sang of loss. Of pain. Of sadness. Of fear. Of despair. Of hopelessness. Of death. And then the song changed. To hope. Joy. Reunion. Love. And as each note hit, a golden specter flowed from her mouth. The specters drifted over the coffins, as If looking for something, before each dove into a box of its own. Some floated out of the barrier, over the forest, and these were followed by elves on hippogriffs (don’t question it its fine come back to it later). Eventually, every casket glowed golden with the specters inside. And then she stopped.

The world seemed to hold its breath. The barrier shattered into glassy dust, the girl and man fell to the ground. 

And then, the first lids were sent flying off the boxes.

Hundreds of people came out, many dressed in gorgeous cloths. Auror robes, formal robes, dresses. Wands in hand, the witches and wizards supposedly killed at Voldemort’s wand rose again, and the rest of the world stared.

“Well fuck.” Fawley said, breaking the stupor.

And then the real chaos descended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooo Hooo! finally close to finishing the story's set up! now that I've mentioned the confusing stuff, we can move on to the somewhat comprehensible parts of the story!
> 
> To get an idea of what the song would sound like, listen to anything from Two Steps From Hell. Half their work could probably qualify, and it's what I listen to when writing.


	8. The Hospital Wing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily and James are very confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer in the first chapter

Lily Potter drank her tea, and tried to process what had happened. She remembered watching a movie with Harry in her arms and James by her side. She remembered the alarm going off, remembered James telling her to run. 

The portkey wouldn’t work, anti-apparation wards were up. She tried to stop that monster. She failed. 

The next thing she knew, she was in a coffin. She didn’t know how she knew that’s what it was, but she did. She scrabbled at the lid until it finally lifted, and she saw the starry sky above. 

People were rushing around, and it was all to bright and loud and crazy, it was all she could do to stay by James (in a coffin next to her) when the healers came and floated them away. 

The two of them ended up in the Hogwarts infirmary (how did they even get here) in a curtained off area. James got a bed (his legs seemed to be damaged somehow) while she was given a padded chair (apparently, space was at a premium right now). 

The healer had said something about nerve damage, about James’s spine… it was hard to remember, the disorientation blurring everything around her. The tea helped some but she had no idea how long she had been here or what was going on. James didn’t seem much better.

“Lils…” her husband spoke up. His nose was bruised, a set of long gashes near his right eye where glasses had shattered. He sat up as best he could, drinking his own tea.

“Yes.”

“What happened.”

“I don’t know. I remember the house…” she had to choke back a sob “Harry. And then I was in a coffin. You?”

“He attacked. Blew me against a wall. Green light. Then… a box.” A moment of silence. “If we made it, do you think… Harry…”

“I don’t know.” She took a long sip. “If we were in coffins, if they thought us dead, then maybe he got out to? Some time has clearly past….”

“Yes, but how did we get here? Has anybody said anything?”

“No.” Lily shook her head. “They all seem to be panicking. Whatever’s going on, I don’t think it affects just us.”

“Do they even know where Harry is?”

“I don’t know.”

They fell into silence.

“Well, how are we going to find out. Do we flag someone down?”

“Tried that. They said to stay here and someone would be by for our statements.”

“Healers?”

“Aurors.”

“So, what do we do?”

“I guess we wait.”

“I hate waiting.” James grumbled, his eyes crinkling the way she loved.

“I know.” Lily muttered, and went back to her tea.  
   
After several hours, and multiple attempts to flag down one of the healers bustling about, their area was finally entered by a young man in auror robes. He had dusty brown hair and black glasses, as well as a roll of parchment in hand.

“Hello, my name is Auror Wood. You lot were caught up in a magical curse that made everyone believe you dead for a time, it was just undone a few hours ago. I’m just here to gather personal information, so we can find your families and get you settled. Any information about who cursed you or the events surrounding that would be useful as well. You are?”

“James Potter, this is my wife, Lily.” She nodded over her seventh cup of tea. 

Wood started, and then paled a bit. He squinted brown eyes at them, before rolling up his parchment and saying “Be right back.”


	9. Insufficient Explinations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amelia Bones has terrible bedside manner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anything you recognize belongs to J. K Rowling.

Amelia Bones looked up from the table in the entrance hall she had commandeered. Inside the great hall, entrance hall, and hospital wing were thousands of cots and chairs, each holding a resurrected witch or wizard. 

Healers bustled about, treating those wounded before their supposed deaths, while aurors tried to gather names and statements. Potter had been rushed to St. Mungo’s for severe magical exhaustion and crucio damage. 

She had taken Digory’s statement personally, not that he said much. Apparently the entire thing was planned by Potter to catch Voldemort and as many Death Eaters as possible. Voldemort was immediately shipped off to Azkaban, along with every Death Eater that answered the call. That was an entire bag of shit that went straight to the bottom of the priority list; now, she had to figure out what to do with three percent of the wizarding population getting resurrected.

It seamed that whatever the marks were for, they also connected all the Death Eaters to Voldemort. So, when Potter cast the ritual, she effectively resurrected ten thousand people. St. Mungo’s, Hogwarts, and the ministry were struggling to keep the people contained.

Most victims were confused and disoriented; the healers demanded that aurors not make general announcements, and talk to victims individually to get names and the like. The goblins were bringing magical line tests to confirm identities. Half the clerical workers were already hunting down next of kin to get the victims home and out of her hair. Even still, everyone was tired and overworked, and they might not hold out for much longer. 

She had just explained to the McKinnons (old family friends) what was going on, when Wood ran up to her.

“Madam Bones! Problem!”

“Yes Wood.” She sighed as she sipped from the coffee the elves had provided. They had been a godsend, keeping everyone fed and calm amidst the chaos.

“Well… its… I found the Potters.”

She tipped back the mug, slammed it on the table, and gestured for him to lead the way. 

She was taken to the back corner of the hospital wing, where those ill enough to have been sent to St. Mungo’s under normal circumstances, but not in danger of death were kept. She caught her breath when she saw him again. She had gone to school with Fleamont Potter, and had been over enough to watch James grow up. The messy hair, hazel eyes… it was him all right.

“Amelia?” he asked, bracing one arm against the railing of the bed. “What’s going on? Where’s Harry?”

She sighed, conjured a chair, and sat down. “How much did Wood tell you?”

“That there was some kind of curse, that you thought we were dead. what’s going on.” Lily demanded.

“Well, you were under that curse for thirteen years.”

Dead silence.

“What!”

“Thirteen years!”

“Where’s Harry?”

“What about Voldemort!”

“Why are we at Hogwarts?”

“Where’s Harry!”

“Alright, alright! Calm down! This is going to take a while, so shut up and answer me first. Who was your secret keeper?”

“Peter.” Lily said.

“Petigrew.” James all but snarled.

“So, not Sirius Black?”

“No.” James said, shaking his head. “We switched so Sirius could be a decoy. Why? Our will should have explained this.”

“The will was sealed after your deaths.”

“Oh.”

“Now, to answer your questions, something happened that night. We suspect that some kind of unknown magic made the killing curse rebound off of Harry and destroy Voldemort’s body. He was gone up until four years ago, when he started working towards a comeback. We arrested him and shipped him of to Azkaban a few hours ago.”

“So, he’s in prison?” Lily asked, shocked.

“Yes. As to why you’re at Hogwarts, this is where the counter-ritual was performed, on you and thousands of others. We’re trying to sort it all out, but essentially, we don’t have the manpower.”

“And Harry?”

“I’m going to tell you some things you wont like.”

“What happened to my daughter.” Lily demanded, eyes like ice.

“The night Voldemort was defeated, the world went insane. Death Eaters lashed out, attacked civilians left and right. So, when Albus Dumbledore said he would put Harry where she belongs, we all let him. Unfortunately, he sent her to your sister.”

“WHAT! We specifically said she was never to go near that woman!” Lily shrieked, sounding not unlike her Petunia in the moment.

“We know that now. Dumbledore also had your will sealed. In all the chaos… I think Harry’s placement just got forgotten about.”

“Well get her back with Sirius where she belongs!” James shouted.

“We don’t know where he is.”

James’s eyes narrowed at her tone. “And that is because…”

“Your ruse worked to well. With the will sealed, all we had to go on the ‘well known fact’ that Black was the secret keeper. He was sent to Azcaban without trial.”

“You mean to tell me that..”

“Yes.” Amelia said, cutting Lily off. “Dumbledore sent an innocent man to Azcaban. He banished your daughter to the muggle world. It gets worse. Apparently, your sister was abusive.”

“No.” Lily whimpered. James reached for Lily’s hand, trying to console his sobbing wife. 

“We think he was grooming her to be a weapon, to die for the cause if necessary, and the abuse was part of that. He attacked social workers that tried to have her removed, and put compulsions on the teachers and staff to ignore the signs. We already have him in custody.”

“And Harry?”

“At St. Mungo’s, being treated for magical exhaustion. The healers say she should recover fine, with enough rest. This does, however, put us in a bit of a dilemma. Legally, you never died, and I can’t question your daughter without your presence. And I need to question her if I want to take down Fudge and Dumbledore. So, if it’s OK with you, you’re both going to be transferred to St. Mungo’s to share her room. Now, is there anyone I can contact? A family member or friend who can look after you while you adjust?”

“Well, I suppose if you don’t know where Sirius is, Remus Lupin could… hold on, why don’t you know where Sirius is? You said he was in Azkaban!” James cried, still consoling his sobbing wife. 

“Was being the operative term. He broke out two years ago, we thought to kill Harry, but apparently to protect her from Pettigrew. He’s been on the run ever since.”

“We just told you it wasn’t him.”

“Yes, but his innocence only came to light yesterday. Apparently, every time someone brought up the truth, a handful of corrupt bureaucrats got in the way and tried to have him Kissed. I was actually hoping you could help us find him. He needs proper help to heal from the dementors, and the ministry needs to interview him, to know if there was anyone else involved. I’ve already retracted the warrant and sent out a notice that he’s innocent, and needs to go to St. Mungo’s, but if he’s stayed free this long, I don’t know how much good it will do.”

“I’ll send him a letter, but I want that in writing.”

“I’ll send the documents to St. Mungo’s. Let me get you moved.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I meant to get chapter 8 out two days ago, but now you get a double wammy! Yay! The next one should be out Thursday ish, but no promises.
> 
> Constructive criticism is always appreciated!


	10. St. Mungo's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James gets a quick look at what the villains have done

James didn’t know what to think. First, he gets attacked by Lord Scaredy-pants himself. Then he wakes up in a coffin, and can’t feel his legs. Next thing he knows, Amelia tells him his little girl is an abused teenager and ships him off to St. Mungo’s.

Damn he needed a drink.

The healer and two aurors (something about fending off crazies) accompanied him and Lily through the flue. 

They were floated down several long hallways, some with gurneys lining the sides, filled with apparently-not-dead-curse-victims. They were finally brought into a large room, big enough for four patients in a pinch. The full team of aurors at the door let them through, and James was levitated onto one of the two beds they summoned, his wife encouraged to sit on the one beside him.

“We’ll be outside, sir, call if you need us.” one of the aurors said.

“And tell us if she does anything.” A healer added before the whole lot vacated.

Lily immediately got off her bed and cuddled beside James. 

“What. The. Fuck.” she whimpered into his chest. 

“I have no idea.”

“So… okay…just…what do we know?”

“Voldemort attacked. We… died?”

“They thought we did. But we were really cursed, a la Sleeping Beauty?”

“Right, but someone undid the curse, and we weren’t the only ones…”

“The thing is, I could swear he hit me with the killing curse.”

James sighed. “Me to.”

“You don’t think that he did?

James shook his head. “No, if it worked like that, someone would have found out, right? And anyways, I’m sure we can just ask Ami when she comes by. I’m more worried about Harry. “

“God.”

“Yes dear?”

“JAMES POTTER DO NOT JOKE ABOUT THIS!”

A quiet moan came from the bed on the opposite wall, that the bickering lovers just now noticed.

“Who…” James asked, struggling to sit up.

“I’ll check…”

Lily got up and reached for the chart at the end of the bed. And then promptly threw it behind her, hitting James in the face.

“Bloody Hell, Lils!” she didn’t respond. “Lily?” he asked again, his wife staring at the lump on the bed. He picked up the chart, and looked over it, only to suck in a breath when he saw the name. He looked back at Lily, who was bent over their daughter’s bed, brushing the bit of black he could see away from her forehead.

James read through the chart, and with each page, his anger grew. Broken bones that never healed straight. Joint damage. Knife scars on her face. The word ‘Freak’ burned across her upper chest backwards. Lash scars up and down her back and limbs. Curse damage. Someone carved fucking slave runes into her wrists, neck and ankles for fuck’s sake! Malnutrition, magical core damage resulting from severe bindings… James had no idea what he was going to do when he got his hands on those monsters, but they. Would. Pay. 

“James.” Lily whimpered from their daughter’s side. 

“Yes.” He growled. She looked over, and noticed the chart in his hands. 

“How bad…”

“You didn’t look?”

Lily shook her head.

“I threw it as soon as I saw the name.”

“Oh.”

“Answer me.”

“Bad.”

“How bad.”

“Slave runes.” A sharp intake of breath.

“Who.”

“Doesn’t say.”

“Amelia said Dumbledore wanted a weapon.”

James nodded. “Seems the most likely thing.”

“Let me read it.”

“You don’t want to.”

She glared at him. He complied. 

James watched her face as she read, the renewed anger at each injury listed. 

“What do we do.” She whispered, moving back to their daughter’s side.

“We wait for her to wake up. And then, we give her what she should have had all along.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't wait to post this, so you get it a few hours early. Oh well. Next chapter is probably Friday ish, and its a biggie, so... yay!
> 
> Criticism is always appreciated!


	11. Coordinating Cleanup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> People try to get their bearings and look for threats in the wrong places

“Alright.” Madam Bones said, as she wandered into the large DMLE conference room. “Where are we? Lisa?”

Lisa Parker stood from her seat and faced the room. She was a short, dumpy blond, with a penchant for floral prints. Several of Amelia’s department had come to call her “Umbridge but decent”, and Amelia couldn’t help but agree. Its amazing how genuine feelings and a mature attitude could make the childish dress tolerable. And, given that Lisa ran the child welfare department, the attitude could be given a pass. 

“Well, we have several hundred children on our hands. Of the two thousand adolescents, we have about two hundred with temporary guardians, mostly relatives. A portion, about six hundred, are Hogwarts age, and Headmistress McGonagall has opened up guest quarters and offered to house them while we sort out the little ones. We have caseworkers overseeing the little ones but… the staff is going to get worn out fast at this rate. We have contacted foster families to volunteer time with the kids, so the employees can focus on placements, but we don’t know how much help we’ll get.”

“Fine, do what you can, we’ll send you help as soon as someone else has hands available. Croaker? You said you had a report on the magic involved?”

“Yes, that is correct.” the Unspeakable rumbled from under the grey hood. “We examined the documents Titania Ellvana left in our department. They confirm her statements about the killing curse’s original purpose. They also detail the ritual, so it can be performed again. The ritual circle the elves made requires a meeting of ley lines, but otherwise can be used by anyone, anywhere. 

“We wondered for years why those killed by the Avada Kedavra never showed in the Book of Deaths or on family tapestries as such until years later. It seems this was because they were never really dead.”

“Should we look for that then?” Rick, from prosecution asked. “People who were supposedly killed but never were recorded as such? Wake them up?”

“My question is what does this mean for the casters. Is it still an Unforgivable if it doesn’t actually kill?” Scrimonger grumbled into his ginger beard. 

“A question for the Wizengamot later.” Bones said. “As far as I know, the result doesn’t matter, the casting is still illegal. Anything else Croaker?”

“Yes.” The old man (presumably) intoned. “There is a new Titania Elvana. And from what my Unspeakables have uncovered, she’s close to being the Maberelle Queen as well.” 

He waited, as if for a reaction.

“Which means…” Rick prompted.

“The Wizengamot was formed as a successor to the Warlock’s council, as a kind of regency board when the last Uther Rex died. But, it only holds power so long as another Magical Monarch does not ascend. Both Titania Ellvana and Maberelle Queen are titles a woman must acquire in the process of ascending the throne.”

“So… this Titania could come in and run roughshod over the government?” Scrimonger demanded, pounding his fist on the table.

“Not yet. She is only a Titania at the moment, and only an Elvana at that. The girl might never ascend the extent necessary. But, it is the first recorded case in centuries, so we should be weary.”

“And who is this child, this possible Queen?” Lisa asked. 

“Harry Potter.” Bones said. Cries of irritation flowed through the room. 

“Yes.” Croaker confirmed. “The girl is on her way to even more power.”

“Oh for fu….udg’s sake, what’s next! How far are we going to let some little girl control us! We should have already brought the brat in for interrogation, not be tiptoeing around her!” Scrimonger yelled, barely acknowledging the reprimand Lisa barked for his language.

“Interrogate her? For what?” Lisa demanded.

“Disturbing the peace, necromancy…”

“Its not necromancy if the bodies never died.” Croaker pointed out.

“They were in coffins!”

“Because of our error, not understanding the spell or what the names not appearing in the book meant. Now we know.” Rick said, holding a hand up before Scrimonger could start again “And even if she did something illegal, which I have yet to see evidence of, the girl was trapped by the headmaster, no way out that wouldn’t get people killed. A good defense council would pull any case apart in a second. Not to mention we’d be putting the girl who captured You-Know-Who, uncovered the true nature of the Dark Mark, and brought back family members of almost everyone in Britain into prison. The public would eat us alive.”

“Rick is right.” Bones said. “There will be plenty of time to examine Ms. Potter’s actions, right now we need to figure out what we are going to do with the people we found. Zander, how many are we looking at?” 

“Well. We have over seven thousand people resurrected; one thousand of those are at St. Mungo’s, the children and about two thousand adults are housed inside Hogwarts. We have acquired tents for the other two thousand, although many Hogsmeade residents have offered their homes as well. We figure if we use the abandoned buildings in Hogsmeade and the hospitality, we could get another thousand housed temporarily. The good news is we have already sent out letters to dozens of friends and family; we use a form letter, explaining the situation, where the resurrected are, and how to retrieve them. We figure most families will reclaim their members by the end of the week. That should get at least half of the resurrected out of the way.”

“The rest?”

“A mix of lines we thought exterminated, the disowned, and muggleborn families.”

“Hm. What about demographics? Our economy is going to be swamped enough with the additions.”

Zander shuffled a few papers. 

“We have almost two hundred aurors, as well as seventy-five healers. Other than that; farmers, shopkeepers, potions masters, creature hunters, the whole gambit. What I’m worried the most about is the Ancient and Noble House members. We have five houses thought extinct, including the McKinnons, returned to the fold. And when they find out the ministry claimed their vaults…”

“We actually didn’t.” Rick said. “We tried, but the goblins wouldn’t release them. Why do you think Fudge has the anti-creature thing going. He wants someone to dehumanize the goblins to the point he can start another war and claim the damn things.”

“So we don’t have to worry about a bunch of lawsuits?” Bones asked.

“Oh no, we will likely face quite a few, just not from that angle.”

“And on that note, what are we looking at in terms of legal status?”

“Well, we can have the Wizengamot declare all those resurrected alive again. Shouldn’t be to hard, several of the current Lords and Ladies have family of their own brought back. In terms of the wills that were executed, that’s honestly not our problem. The two biggest things will be child custody cases and determining who actually holds a seat. Ms. Potter is a good example of that sort of thing. Legally, her godfather had custody and regency the entire time, and since Dumbledore effectively kidnapped him and stole the Potter proxy, all of the bills he voted on should be gone over and the Potter votes re-cast, but we cant have Black do it, since James Potter is the Lord. But if Black had been allowed to vote for the Potters, Lord Potter wouldn’t have cause to override past vote. So who really gets to decide what laws House Potter supported? And what if the returning Lords alter enough past votes to remove currently active laws? And with the way such laws have built on each other these last few years, well.” He tossed down his papers, and rubbed his eyes behind the glasses. “It looks to be a right mess.”

“But until such things start to move, we’re in good shape?” Amelia hoped. 

“Yes, until people start going after one another. If we’re lucky, the houses will go after each other first, and us second. Give the department time to mount an offensive.”

“It’ll have to do. Speaking of Black, how are we looking?””

“We checked the records. What Potter said was true. No trial, not even an interrogation or witness statements. Just the order to send him to Azkaban.” Zander said. 

“We have the formal papers written for a deal, including compensation. Based on that list Potter left in the evidence, it should be acceptable.” Rick replied.

“Any thing big we’ll have to give?”

“A lot of money, but honestly, less than the old Lord Black would have pushed for. We have to pay for his and Lady Potter’s medical bills for the rest of their lives.”

“Potter’s to?” Scrimonger asked.

“The way Potter’s little rant-on-paper from the ledger put it, she was only abused because her godfather was kidnapped. So, her body’s state is our fault.”

“Bullshit.”

“Rufus! Knock it off!” Lisa exclaimed. “That poor girl has been through enough. At the hands of government officials no less! You cant blame her for not trusting the very people who hurt her. And after everything it seems she’s done, some medical bills are a pittance. You should be ashamed!”

“And speaking of Azkaban, how are our new guests settling in?” Bones intervened.

“Well, we’ve got two dozen Death Eaters in custody. Each was patched up and sent to cells in under an hour. Apparently, You-Know-Who is sobbing in a cell as we speak. I went to check myself, rather pitiful actually.” Rufus complained.

“How so?” Croaker asked.

“Just… I kind of wonder why he was so scary. I mean, half his supposed victims are back alive again, his sidekicks are arrested, and the man keeps crying. If I didn’t know he was crazy before… I doubt what’s left of his sanity will last long. And it’ll take weeks to handle the resurrected, look over all the evidence. By the time we actually bring him to trial… I’m not sure there’ll be anyone in there to punish. People like him really don’t last long there.”

“And on that happy note, final thoughts? No? Good. Any changes I need you to make will be on your desks tomorrow. Get some sleep.” And so the meeting adjourned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Salutations!
> 
> Sorry this is a tad later than I said it would be. Life happens sometimes.  
> Also, sorry for the spelling errors a couple chapters ago. I think I got them all. Special thanks to hikari100 for pointing them out!
> 
> Next chapter-some at least one character that has been asked about makes an appearance!
> 
> Constructive criticism is always appreciated!


	12. Potter Manor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus goes over what led to his current predicament and Sirius lets go of his thin veil of sanity.

Remus Lupin woke to a change in the wards. 

He scrambled up, examining the homey parlor at Potter Manor. He and his friend had slumped near the fireplace together, after Harry locked them in two days before. It had taken forever to calm Sirius; he pounded on the windows and doors, threw himself into the floo so many times he burned his arms. Every few hours, the escapee would start up again, begging for release.

It wouldn’t be so bad normally; the harsh spring sun irritated Sirius’s eyes, so used to the dark of a cell, even two years after escape, and Remus-the-bookworm hated the outdoors on principle. Unless he was running with his pack of couse, but that hadn’t happened since James died. 

But this time, this time was different. He remembered Harry arriving in the floo the night before the task, saying she wanted to forget abut everything for a few hours. So, they had; she and Sirius rolled around on the floor like the juveniles they were, wrestling because they could. Remus had gone over her latest returned assignments with her, both the copies she turned in (averaging acceptables) and her actual work (generally displaying NEWT level understanding).

Her grades had been a point of contention when she started her fourth year. Both Remus and Sirius knew that even with the muggle background, she should have been capable of more. Remus had been so worried about Sirius that last year, he hadn’t noticed her low scores, but with his packmate back and cub safe, that had changed.  
__

_“It’s not that I’m lazy.” She had said, calm even during the first time the two men tried to yell at her. It was a Thursday night at the end of September, her usual visitation time during term. “I actually have to do several drafts, and compare them against my peers to see what I need to make worse to get the grades I get. Honestly, how Hermione can memorize the textbooks but not notice me re-writing my essays a half dozen times to get them just bad enough I will never understand.”_

_“Just bad enough! What do you mean you make them wrong!” Remus had exclaimed._

_Harry sighed. “Moony, I need you to listen, I promise it’s relevant.”_

_“Fine.” Remus huffed, sitting on the tall stool across the kitchen island._

_“What happened on December 25th, 1987?”_

_“Christmas.”_

_“And what did you do on that day?”_

_“Nothing special.”_

_“Really? On Christmas? You didn’t celebrate with anyone? Didn’t go visiting?”_

_Remus looked confused for a few moments, brow furrowed and gazing at his hands._

_“Yes… I looked forwards to the day all month because I finally found…”_

_Remus had woken up on the floor a few minutes later, the obliviates gone, destroyed by Harry forcing details._

__

He spent hours sobbing that night, as he remembered what he had seen, the gashes on her back. It took weeks for Harry to convince him it wasn’t his fault. He still wasn’t entirely convinced now, over half a year later, that if he had just been stronger, he might have saved her. But he had enough room for one other emotion. 

Rage. 

Blinding hatred for that man, the one he used to trust. Once he had finally choked the truth out to Sirius, the two had tried to storm off to Hogwarts themselves.

__

_That November 1st, as they got ready to face Dumbledore and tear down all of Hogwarts itself if that’s what it took to protect their cub, they learned her real skill level._

_Neither man had made it out of the room for her spell fire. When they woke up, and tried again, she had taken her time, playing with them like a cat. Her sheer creativity was amazing; she sent little more than stunners from her wand, and yet levitated, summoned and banished objects around the room like she was a part of the air, slithering with sinuous grace, dancing through the few spells that made it near her. Simply put, she had kicked their asses._

_“I’m not weak. I’m not stupid. If I didn’t want to be in the tournament, I wouldn’t be. Do you think our actions at the cave, the shack, will go unnoticed? That Voldemort wont come when he realizes we know his secrets? If he discovers the spying spells I put on the rat, that I have Elves monitoring his plan and lackeys twenty-four -seven? We need a distraction. The best way to distract him is to make him think all is going to plan. And the best way to do that, is to play along. Let him put me in the tournament. I could wipe the floor with the bimbo, meathead and hottie. But I wont, because then both him and Dumbledore will know exactly how powerful I am.” She smirked, a mix of James’s confident grin and Lily’s icy fury. “And I don’t want them to know. Not until it’s to late.”_

____

__So, the night before the last task, she had made the two men dinner and eaten the cake by their sides._ _

__They woke up in their beds, wards set to “nobody in or out”, no way to back her up. And, generally, when she didn’t want backup, she was going to do something ridiculously dangerous. Which had led to the last day’s cycle of panic._ _

__Remus shook himself out of his recollection, realizing that he should have already woken Sirius so they could go after Harry. An owl was nocking at the window. Groggily, the werewolf stumbled over to retrieve it._ _

__He started at the ministry seal, and sent a silent prayer that it was good news. “Sirius.” He said, kicking his friend awake._ _

__“Mimsy-Porpington!” Sirius shouted, sitting ramrod straight._ _

__“Wards are down. Letter from the Ministry.”_ _

__Sirius paled. “Good news?”_ _

__“No idea.” Remus sat on the couch, and opened the seal as Sirius joined him._ _

_____ _

___Dear Mr. Remus Lupin,_ _ _

___You are being contacted because a friend/family member(s) of yours believed dead was found alive and well. Giving that this person(s) have been in a state of suspended animation for some time, we are contacting family members/friends of the recently returned to collect this individual(s) and ease their transition, as they rebuild their lives. You will find the names and current locations of anyone who has requested you below._ _ _

___ _

___James Potter (St. Mungo’s, room 1077)_ _ _

___Lily Potter (St. Mungo’s, room 1077)_ _ _

___ _

___Please visit as soon as possible, so that arrangements for their release can be made._ _ _

___Thank you and have a pleasant day._ _ _

_____ _

__…_ _

__…_ _

__…_ _

__“Bullshit!” Sirius yelled, kicking the coffee table._ _

__“Lord Doggie! Lord Doggie! Parky has message from Titania!”_ _

__“You do!” Sirius shouted, running to kneel in front of the little elf._ _

__“Yes sir. Titania tells me to tells you if hers plan works, that his bond with Lady Lily and Lord Jamie is back to full strength. Theys be alive, Lord Doggie.”_ _

__“It’s not possible.” Sirius said, pacing back and forth in front of the fire. “They’re gone! I, I saw their bodies.”_ _

__“Evil Man cursed them to sleep. Titania finds way to wake them up. Theys be back, sir.”_ _

__“Don’t lie to me!!” Sirius yelled, diving to shake the elf. Remus intercepted._ _

__“Sirius! Get a hold of yourself!”_ _

__“He’s lying!”_ _

__“You know he cant do that!” Remus channeled a bit of the wolf to toss his friend into the red leather chair nearby. “You’re the Potter regent! If you need to, you can override Harry’s orders. Parky,” Remus turned to the little elf. “Sirius just told you not to lie. Are James and Lily back.”_ _

__The little elf nodded solemnly. “Theys be alive and with Titania now.”_ _

__“Okay, so if we want answers, we go to St. Mungo’s”_ _

__“No, Moony, we cant.”_ _

__“Why not.”_ _

__“Because I don’t know what I’ll do when we walk into that trap!”_ _

__“Its not a trap! When have Harry’s plans ever led us astray?”_ _

__“Its not her plan I’m worried about!”_ _

__“No, its seeing Lily and James again!”_ _

__“I see them already!” Sirius put his hand over his face. “Every night. In my dreams, in my nightmares. When I look at Harry.”_ _

__“And if you hope to see them any other way, and loose that…”_ _

__“I cant do it Moony. I know I seem better, and I am, but not that much. Not that much.”_ _

__Remus slowly sat on the arm of the chair. “Then don’t. say your right, it is a trap. That means they likely either have Harry, or want to use us against her. Either way, we need to take them out.”_ _

__“You want us to walk into a trap.”_ _

__“I want me to walk into a trap. The letter didn’t mention you. And if I bring along my Familiar Padfoot, they cant say no, not so long as we are in public areas.”_ _

__A small smile started to cross Sirius’s face. “Now that, we can work with.”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter was one of the hardest ones for me to write, mainly because so much happens in Remus's head. I tried to make things coherent enought for readers to get the gist, but fragmented enough to simulate the scattered thoughts of a man who got drugged by his daughter figure and then locked up in a house with Sirius 'I Am So Insane People Weren't Surprised When I Turned Into A Accused Mass Murderer' Black. 
> 
> Constructive criticism is always helpful!


	13. Catching Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A visit to the hospital.

Padfoot carefully walked the halls of the hospital, tail up and ears perked for any sign of danger...so far, nothing had gone wrong; no wands drawn, spells cast, wards crossed other than the usual Mungo’s fair…

They approached a room at the end of a hall, with two aurors outside. 

“Halt.” One of the aurors, dark skinned and bald said. “This room is off limits.” The other auror, a short blond fellow, pulled his wand. 

“I received a letter saying to come here?” Moony said, handing over the ministry letter. The black auror looked it over, before casting a verification spell. 

“One moment please.” He opened the door a tad to say something, but Sirius didn’t hear it. He was to busy sorting out the smells. Faintly, under all the hospital smells, but increasing as the door stayed open. Musk and pine. Lilies and roses. Scales and lightning. 

It was the voice that broke him.

Before he knew it, Padfoot was on top of the bed, licking his packmate’s face, but wiggling fast and hard enough to almost send him off the cot. 

“Pads! Knock it off! C’m on, man, stop it! They said they didn’t know how to find you! Oh, its so good to see you. Shit’s been crazy!”

“Hello again Remus. It’s been long time apparently. Felt like no time for us.” Lily said, walking over to embrace her friend. Remus held still for a moment, before slowly collapsing into her arms. Any sobs that may or may not have come out were ignored.

When the auror eventually closed the door, Sirius moved to the chair and shifted, facing away from the door just in case. 

“Merlin, Pads. You look like hell.”

“And you haven’t changed a bit. Typical. Oh glorious flower, so great to bask in your effervescent scent once more!” Sirius yelled, jumping onto the redhead and holding on like a drowning man to a raft. 

“Good to see you to Sirius. Where the heck did you learn a word like effervescent?” Lily asked, hugging him back while James and Remus had their own reunion. 

“Your daughter.” The Black Lord snarked. Lily immediately looked to the other occupied bed. 

The two men moved to get a look at their pup. Her long dark hair had been unbound, and was hanging down the bed on either side. On her face, in addition to the iconic forehead scar, were a dozen large scratches. Each was shaped like another lightning bolt reaching from forehead to chin, mirrored across her face. They slashed over her nose and even her eyelids.

“Who did this.” Sirius demanded, Moony literally growling beside him. 

“We don’t know. All the charts say is that they were done by a knife, not magic. You… haven’t seen them before?” Lily asked. 

“No. They must be new.” Remus gritted out. 

James shook his head from across the room and held up the clipboard. “Nope. Says that most of her scars came from this past summer at the latest. Only a small one on her shoulder is new.”

“Not possible.” Sirius spit. “We’ve seen her every week for the past year, minimum. We would have seen them.”

“Not with the necklace they found.” Both men’s eyes shot up to Lily. “The papers mention a necklace with an aura that would work like a notice-me-not for the scars. That’s part of why nobody realized what happened to her, I guess. There’s no way the muggles wouldn’t have seen what was happening to her otherwise.”

“Why would she wear something like that?” Remus muttered.

“Shame.” Sirius said. “One of the worst things an abused child can feel is other’s pity.”

“She didn’t want us to worry.” Remus muttered.

“Oh don’t mind me, haven’t even seen my daughter yet, but just talk about what I cant look at. I’m perfectly fine being kept out of the conversation about my daughter’s health!” James griped. 

“Then get up here and look at her!” Sirius snapped.

“He can’t.” Lily said, getting between the tow to cut of the argument. “He got thrown into a wall. Spinal damage, can’t walk.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you say so!” Remus muttered, levitating Lily’s bed to the side a tad and setting Harry’s between them before vanishing the rails. “Better?”

James looked at the half his daughter he could see, drinking it in for several minutes. For all the arrogance, Sirius knew most of it was a show. James had always loved kids, part of the reason he and Sirius got on so well actually, and never got a little sibling. When Harry was born, several co-workers in the corps and order had commented on how strange his devotion was. But Sirius knew this was par for the course; James liked to keep his herd small, but when someone was added, he would defend them with everything he had.

“So…” Lily muttered after a few minutes of watching James stare at the girl on the bed. “What have you two been up to?”

“Oh the usual.” Sirius said. “Broke out of an inescapable prison, almost got the Dementor’s Kiss, found the keys to killing Voldemort. You?”

Lily shrugged. “Died. Woke up in a box. Got sent here.”

“About that…” Remus trailed off. Lily didn’t answer. “What did you mean you died? How the heck are you alive for that matter?”

“Beats me. The last things I remember from before are begging him to spare Harry and the killing curse. Next thing I know, I wake up in a box.”

“This is all so bloody messed up.” Sirius grumbled, hands in his hair and pacing the center of the room.

“Tell me about it.” James shot back. “Last time I saw Harry, she was in diapers!”

“Speaking of Harry,” Lily asked, “you said you see her every week. What’s she like?”

“Amazing.” Remus said. “She’s a genius. Pumps out NEWT level work. Has several papers on transifiguration published under pseudonyms. Potions to. And don’t get me started on her experiments.”

“A little brat to.” Sirius added. “When school let out last summer, and she snuck away from the Dursleys as much as she could get away with, she spent the first week being the perfect little princess. Got us wrapped around her fingers, then started setting up pranks that we would blame on each other.”

“Spent half the summer at war, every time it started to cool off, she’d set another prank off to start hostilities back up again.”

“The worst part was, she declared “pack time” off limits, so most of her pranks went off when we were alone. At least, we thought so. She is way to good at scent-removal potions and moving quietly. Combined with the cloak…”

Remus smirked at his sleeping cub. “She brought out her pensive when we finally figured it out. Played us the ‘prank war’s greatest hits’.”

“She even found a way to slow motion what happened and take pictures of our expressions inside the memories.”

“Did she tell you she plans on making another camera and selling it?” Remus asked.

“No.” Sirius said. “But it doesn’t surprise me. She’s a financial shark.” He got his evil this-is-going-to-hurt-and-I’m-going-to-laugh-at-your-pain grin. “I cant wait until the Prophet realizes who owns them now.”

“She bought out the Prophet? I thought Malfoy had most of the share? He’d never give up that kind of power.” James asked.

“Well, not all of it. Malfoy still has his twenty-five percent. It’s the other sixty or so. Turns out, House of Black owned thirty percent, and the rest were split amongst various dark families. Several of whom owe either the House of Black, Peverell, or Slytherin quite a bit.” Sirius replied.

“Why would any of those other Houses matter?” James asked. 

“Because, Peverell is actually a separate title that the Potters could have claimed centuries ago but never did. Which she resurrected. And Slytherin operates on a set of feudal laws, where if the head of house attempts to kill a member of their own house in anything other than self defense, they automatically loose their Lordship. So, Moldyshorts trying to kill his distant cousin Lily resulted in the Lord-pardon, Ladyship immediately passing to the next living relation in the line. Which just so happened to be you.” Sirius pointed at Lily.

“Turns out,” Remus took up the narrative, “about two hundred years ago, a woman named Aremia Gaunt was kicked out of the family for being a squib. She married a man named Harrold Klein, before her great-great granddaughter Rose married a man named Henry Evans.”

“You're kidding.” James said as Lily’s face went white. 

“You ever try to talk to snakes?” Sirius asked. “Harry has. Has a basilisk friend, even.”

“Because Merlin forbid the girl actually be afraid of something terrifying for once.” Remus muttered.

“A basilisk. Our daughter. Where the flying fuck did she find a basilisk?” James asked.

“Under the school.” Sirius replied.

“What school?”

“Hogwarts.”

“There’s a basilisk under Hogwarts?”

“There was. Might not be there now.”

“Why?”

“She let it out.”

“Harry let a class XXXXX monster out of Hogwarts.”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“She was hungry.”

“What does Harry being hungry have to do with…”

“Not Harry, Mab.”

“Mab?”

“The basilisk.”

“She named a basilisk Mab?”

“No, Salizar Slytherin did.”

“Harry’s friends with Salizar Slytherin’s pet basilisk?”

“Yep.”

“It’d have to be eight hundred years old!”

“Yep.”

James seemed to run out of questions at that point. 

“Wow. Just… wow.”  
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> So, here's the chapter. I just wrote some stuff I can't wait to post, so yay, y'all have that to look forward to.
> 
> Constructive criticism appreciated!


	14. Legalities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of legal stuff gets sorted and Harry finally gets a healer's attention.

The group settled in to tell stories about Harry for a while. They avoided certain topics in general; Sirius’s incarceration, how Lily and James died, Harry’s abuse. Mostly, they were just reminisces about her childhood or stories from the most recent summer. They glanced at the special edition Prophet, read what the Digory boy saw in the graveyard and about the ritual Harry did to bring the Potters back, but ignored the rest in favor of reconnecting. After an hour or so, a knock came on the door. 

Sirius quickly turned into Padfoot, and lay across Harry’s legs as it opened. 

Amelia Bones strode in, with two men in Auror robes and two people, a woman and man, in normal work clothes.

“Mr. Lupin! Glad to see you could come. Has Lady...er…Ms. Potter woken up yet?”

“No.” Lily said. “Do the healers have any idea how long?”

Another figure stepped in, auburn hair in a tight bun and back ramrod straight. “We were just telling Madam Bones that we can only tell Harry’s legal guardian. Since that seems to be up for debate, we had best discuss that first, before I hand out any information to the wrong parties.”

“Andy! Good to see you!” James yelled. “I’d get up and bow but, well… you look good!”

Andromeda Tonks sighed. “Hello James, good to see you to. Now, are you going to let us focus without constant interruptions of nonsense, or am I going to have to drug you? Again?”

“He’ll behave.” Lily scolded her husband with a sharp rap on the head. 

“Well then, I suppose that’s where I come in!” the middle aged, balding man spoke up. “I’m Rick Sanderson, head of the prosecutor’s office, although I’m functioning as a general legal analyst in this case. This is Lisa Parker, from the Child Welfare Office.” He gestured to the dumpy blond witch on his right. “Weather you or Mr. Black have legal custody is kind of up in the air right now. We can’t legally give you custody of her until you sue for it, or Black hands it over willingly. And to do that, we need to know where he is. Technically since he’s on the run, we can make Harry here a temporary ward of the Ministry, and assign her a case worker from Lisa’s department, who could name you as ‘foster family’, so to speak, as Harry’s next of kin.”

“But… we’re her parents.” Lily said.

“While that is true, your will was supposed to be executed. Even with Dumbledore sealing it, the magical imperatives of inheritance, such as magical guardianship, still recognized that you were effectively permanently incapacitated and moved   
forwards. So, until you are declared alive by the Wizengamot, Black technically has custody. We can’t remove that from him without a lawsuit or due cause. He could, of course, sign custody back over to you, but we need him to do that.”

“Why all the talk about suing Sirius? He has a Kiss on sight order. Wouldn’t that be considered death, and Harry would go to next of kin anyways? He wont be alive long enough for any lawsuit to happen.” Remus inquired. The various Ministry workers shuffled their feet, something that seemed to catch Andromeda’s interest as well. 

“You see Mr… Lupin, was it? Sirius Black never actually had a trial, so we cant actually have him Kissed.” The sheepish lawyer said.

“As you well know.” Bones cut in. “You were there for Pettigrew’s confession, weren’t you?”

“Yes, I was. The Ministry is admitting that happened now?”

“Where have you been, under a rock?” Rufus Scrimonger sneered. “Potter played her memory of that and the Minister’s coverup for the entire Tri-Wizard cup crowd. Even if we could find him, the public would lynch us. The order was rescinded, as well as the initial warrant. Aurors have standing orders to bring Black here for evaluation if they find him. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about his location, would you?”

“Hold up.” Remus said, holding up his palm. “You mean, after two years of running, the Ministry is just letting this go?”

“Of course not.” Bones huffed. “Here is the deal that you asked for in writing, by the way.” Bones handed the list of compensations on offer over to James. “If you could send that with a letter to Black, it’d be much appreciated. He’s been hurt by us for to long, we want to help fix what Dumbledore broke, if we can.” 

Padfoot scooted up to lie next to James and read the paper over his shoulder. It was an extremely desirable deal, all things considered. Pardons for any crimes committed between his incarceration and now, monetary compensation (and lots of it), medical care…

James looked down at Padfoot, and they conferred in that silent way that drove Lily crazy. Finally, after several glances at Remus, some kind of decision was reached. 

“Very well.” James said. “I’ll give it to him.” And he handed the letter to Padfoot, who stayed right where he was and transformed. Sirius crossed one arm behind his head, and the other around James. 

“I accept the deal. Now, if you’d all excuse us, my pack and I need to talk to Healer Tonks about my goddaughter’s health.”

Scriminger and the other auror had their wands out and pointed at Sirius, while Parker practically hid behind Rick. 

Andromeda just smirked. 

“Realy, cousin? Illegal animagus?”

“Excuse you! I’ll have you know this was a very difficult thing to accomplish!”

“Oh yeah? How long?”

“Two years.”

“Really?” Bones asked. “Well, at least you’ve been keeping busy after you broke out. I’m surprised, though, that you could meditate for long enough to complete the transition.”

“I am a man of many mysteries.” Sirius said, wiggling his eyebrows at his old superior officer. 

“Well, in that case, Dawlish, arrest Mr. Lupin.” Scrimonger bit out.

Various shouts were heard, most notably Lily’s shrill “What the flying fuck for!”

“Aiding and abetting a fugitive of the law!” Scrimonger shouted back, while Dawlish moved to cuff Remus, only to find Lily in his way and Sirius’s wand pointed at his head. 

“Like. Hell.” Sirius growled.

“Scrmonger, Dawlish, stop this at once! Mr. Lupin is not under arrest.” Amelia commanded, her own wand aimed at her Head Auror.

“But he helped Black stay on the run!”

“Yes, he helped an innocent man avoid death from a cabal of corrupt politicians out to turn Harry Potter into a living weapon! Now get out while the rest of us pick up the mess you’ve just made!”

“But he’s a werewolf!”

“Irrelevant. Get. Out.”

The two red-robed men stomped out of the room, glaring at Remus the whole way. 

“Sorry about that.” Bones apologized, holstering her wand. 

“Not your fault. Those two have always been assholes.” James waved it away.

“James! Language!” Lily hissed.

“We’ve been here hours, and now you start yelling at me! You haven’t been much better!”

“I wasn’t entirely sure this whole thing wasn’t a bad dream. Now I know it’s not! So watch your language in front of Harry!”

“She’s asleep!”

Remus snorted. “That’s never stopped her so far.”

“What does that mean?” Lily demanded. 

“Oh, this’ll be fun.” Sirius giggled. “Watch!” He put his wand a foot from Harry’s head, made sure his own body was out of her normal line of fire, and cast a quick color changing charm.

Everyone not prepared was immediately thrown on their asses by a blast of magic from Harry’s hands as she sat up, ramrod straight. Harry sat up for another moment, before apparently deciding to stay asleep, rolled on her side and hugged her pillow like a teddy bear.

Remus, the only one still on his feet, said “What Sirius meant to demonstrate, is that, knowing Harry, she will wake up knowing everything we talked about, who put off the most ambient energy and what color underwear we’re all wearing.”

“Does she do that often? Sleep cast?” Andromeda asked as Rick helped her and Lisa off the floor. 

“Just when you try to wake her or cast on her.” Sirius said. 

“And you found this out how?’ Lily questioned. 

Sirius grinned back. “Trying to get revenge for the great prank war of ninety-four.”

“Do I want to know?” Andromeda asked. 

“No.” Remus shot back.

“Well, don’t do that again Sirius! She’s recovering from magical exhaustion! Although, we can’t tell how bad, given every time we tried to run diagnostics that happens!” Andy griped. 

“We’ve got it.” Remus said, moving around to Lily’s side and settling himself at the head of the bed, with Harry propped up and sitting on his lap, still asleep. Sirius changed into his dog form and lay across her legs, on top of her hands as well. “You should be able to cast whatever you need to now without her lashing out.”

“What exactly are you doing?” James asked.

“It’s the only way to cast on her while asleep without her lashing out; surround her with packmembers and hold her as still as possible. I’ll be talking to her the entire time to. It doesn’t always work, but generally, it keeps her from doing anything to bad.”

“And you found this out how?” Lisa asked.

Remus grimaced. “Trying to soothe her nightmares. Even on normal nights, she wakes up a few times. With us close by, we can normally get her calm enough that she doesn’t actually wake up, but she still turns a bit. She says they only come twice a week or so, but we suspect she has them more often than not.”

“What else have you tried?” Andromeda asked, casting spells on Harry without getting thrown away for the first time. 

“Dreamless sleep. She said she was fine, but then refused to take it again. From the way she smelled a few mornings after taking it, I don’t think it works well. Sleep spells, potion mixes… The things that work best, and I know it’s going to sound weird, are reading or singing to her, and being in contact with at least one of us. Padfoot seems to work the best; he curls up on her legs most nights she stays with us.”

“Amelia, I’m going to try and get a profile from Mr. Lupin. Could everybody kindly exit while I discus confidential matters?” Andromeda demanded, remembering the others in the room.

The bureaucrats quickly obeyed.

“Sirius, bark once if you give me, Lily and James permission to hear anything relating to Harry’s state, and speak on her behalf for treatment purposes.” Remus commanded.

He barked, and Andromeda nodded her confirmation while the officials bustled out.

“Hm. How does she react to physical affection?”

“It depends. She’s gotten better about it lately. If you catch her by surprise, you get knocked back pretty quick, even us. She lets us touch her, but she normally tenses up at first. She’s gotten better; she stops tensing sooner, doesn’t flinch as noticeably. She’s started initiating a lot. If she thinks Albus is watching, she’ll be a lot more affectionate with other people than in private. We think she feels safer when she doesn’t feel forced to act ‘normal’.”

“What sort of contact primarily?”

“Well, she wrestles with Padfoot fine…”

“Padfoot?”

“Sirius’s dog form. She rarely tenses up around him like this any more, and will sit where he can lay in her lap and pet him whenever she can. When he’s in human form or I try… she seems to do better with hair and hands. She’ll hold ours on her own, sometimes gives little play punches when Sirius is being an idiot, but she always looks scared and flinches after. Those have gotten more common. She lets us initiate hair. She doesn’t like having her back exposed unless one of us is doing her hair, which she asks for every day she can after the first month. Um… hugs she tenses up for, but once she relaxes, she’s willing to hug for anywhere between a few seconds and a few minutes. Normally it depends on her mood. Sometimes she pecks one of us on the cheek, but runs away and acts nervous for hours afterwards. Oh, and she likes physical fighting. We both spar with her, Padfoot mostly, and she doesn’t seem to mind any of the contact that happens with that.”

“Would you say that you two initiate most of the contact?”

“Definitely not. After the first few days, when we realized what was going on, we made a point of letting her. We’ll offer our hand or a hug, but let her turn away if she isn’t up to it. I think she wants to stop flinching, she’s certainly aware of it. Sometimes, it seams like she initiates to test herself, tries to see how long she can hold a hug.”

“So, you let her set the pace, and she’s actively trying to get more comfortable with affection?”

“Yes.”

“And she lets Sirius make contact with her and vice versa easily when he’s in his dog form, but has problems with the human form?”

“She had problems with Padfoot for the first month or two as well. She mentioned something about a bad running with a bulldog, and the few times she’s been around smaller breeds she gets nervous. But since she’s adjusted to Padfoot, she seems to take larger dogs better. Barking scares her, regardless of the dog doing it.”

“Hm. Does she speak in her sleep?”

“Sometimes. She’ll call for us, her parents. A lot of yelling for to stop or not hurt someone.”

“How often do each of those occur?”

“Before we started reading to her and stuff? We only had her over for the night once a week during the summer, and they happened three out of four nights. They all happen together, generally. She’s rarely been over lately though, but when she stayed nearly full time over Christmas, we read to her and had Padfoot with her every night. Sirius noticed her turning about two nights a week.”

“What about… do you know if she menstruates?”

“Yes. She seems to follow the normal schedule, as I understand it.”

Andromeda raised an eyebrow. 

“I can smell the hormone changes. She’s pretty consistent as best I can tell in terms of timing, although the amount of hormone release varies far more than it does in adult women.”

“Do you know if she’s active?”

“No, and with her intimacy problems, I doubt it. She has mentioned several crushes, but said she doesn’t think she’s ready to try dating yet when we teased her.”

“Boys or girls?”

“All boys.”

“How many ‘crushes’.”

“Depends on if you count the Weasleys as separate.”

“What do you mean?”

“The twins. They come as a package, generally. She had a crush on both simultaneously, although she admitted that could be because they kept switching names on her.”

“How are her grades?”

“A average. But she gives me her real coursework, and those are at NEWT level, in my opinion. She has several published papers under pseudonyms, and a few patents, also under false names.”

“Real coursework?”

“She turns in dumbed down work because she was scared Dumbledore would bind her magic further if she did any better. She still does the work to her capabilities, and has me grade that work instead.”

“And you said NEWT level? Which subjects?”

“All the core subjects, she takes divination and care of magical creatures at Hogwarts, but I have her writing arithmancy and runes reports for me in addition. All are at least NEWT level, and several of her inventions involve combinations of every subject except herbology. She also has brewed her own potions, most of which she cant get certified because she’s not in an official apprenticeship, so she cant publish the recipes.”

“How much of her days are spent working?”

“She sleeps about six hours, spends about eight hours on school work, another three to eight on her various projects, depending on the day and whats going on. Aside from school, its pretty random what she does when. When she’s on breaks, its about twelve hours on projects, the rest goofing off.”

“Sports and exercise?”

“Quidditch, although she does it to distract Dumbledore rather than because she likes it. She likes boxing and some kind of martial arts I cant pronounce, although she doesn’t practice to much.”

“Good. What level would you put her casting at?”

“NEWT. She learned the patronus in her third year, brewed polyjuice in her second.”

“Alright.” Andy seemed to finish up her spells, and knocked down the quill recording the results, but left the dictaquill recording the conversation. 

“Now, what can you tell me about her injuries?”

Sirius shifted back out and said, “We got the gist. Arm broken when she fell down the steps and her cousin jumped on it. She mentioned the belt, but we never saw the scars.”

“I did, once when I tried to get her out. I caught them mid beeting.” Remus corrected.

“Tried to get her out?

Remus nodded. “When James and Lily died, or we thought they did, Dumbledore told me that the wards on her house would keep her safe, but that if he let me see her, I could lead Death Eaters to her. At first, he let me send letters through him, but when she turned five and he still wouldn’t let me visit, and I didn’t get any letters back, I started to worry. I hired a private investigator, and they found the Dursleys. I showed up two days before Christmas with some presents, knocked on the door, but when they opened it, I could smell the blood. I grabbed Harry out of the cupboard they shoved her in and ran. Dumbledore found us later that week, obliviated me and took Harry back. I went back two more times, on her eighth birthday and the Christmas when she was nine. The second time we got away for an entire month, almost made it to America before he caught us, and the last time she ran and told a police officer I kidnapped her after two days. She told me in September, after she helped me push past the obliviates, that she did that because Dumbledore said if she tried to run again he’d crucio me and make her watch.”

“So, she was crucioed through childhood?”

“She can cast through it, and you and I both know the only way to build that kind of tolerance is to fight through it during adolescence.” Sirius interjected. Andromeda nodded.

“Has she talked about the facial scaring?”

Both men shook their heads. 

“What about the magic bindings?”

“Several times.” Sirius said, “She said she had a workaround, something about magical frequencies? It has to do with how good her wandless is. She actually can do some spells better windlessly than wanded.”

“Like?”

“She might as well be telekinetic and pyrokinetic. She can do the same thing with water as well. She can summon golems, do plant sculpting spells, vanish and summon.” Remus listed.

“Does she know any occlumency?”

“Yes and no.” Sirius said.

“Her mind cant be entered, but that’s a function of the weird stuff she had to do to get around the bindings. She does meditate.” Remus added, before Sirius jumped back in. 

“She has a decent mindscape, not fully developed, but she can achieve the multi-strand focus state without it.”

“So, she performs all the functions of occlumency without actually learning the discipline?”

“Essentially.” Sirius replied. 

“Where would you put her maturity level?”

“Depends. She acts like an adult when she’s planning or casting, more mature then us sometimes. Others, she acts like a five-year-old.” Remus said.

“How so?”

“She has trouble… identifying boundaries? That’s the best I can think to call it.” Sirius summarized. “She thinks some things that are harmless are actually mean or meant to attack. I think it’s the Bellatrix situation but reversed. Bellatrix though it was all a game; Harry takes things far to personally and seriously. At the same time, she likes stupid cartoons and coloring books, I even caught her playing with dolls in the manor’s attic once. But then, she goes and spends all day cooking a gourmet meal and threatens to stab anyone who gets in her way. It’s hard to follow sometimes.”

Andromeda seemed to expect this. “Not surprising, considering what I heard. Were you at the Tournament?”

“No, she locked us in the manor. We saw Dumbledore got arrested, but haven’t had a chance to read the rest of the paper. We’re kind of still processing that James and Lily are back.” Remus said, ignoring Sirius’s mutters about Dumbledore’s overdue arrest. 

“Well, she broadcast memories of the abuse for everyone at the task to watch.”

Simuntaneous “WHATS” from all the remaining adults.

“She didn’t show anything graphic, but enough that most adults have an idea of the sort of thing that happened. Including the torture curses and the threat of using it on you, Remus. Her history is a bit of a public topic now. Which is why we need to get her a comprehensive recovery plan and now.”

“Wait.” Sirius said. “Before we start planning, there’s one more thing you need to know about. She gets seizures.”

“Seizures? How often?”

“She wont tell us.” Remus sighed. “We only saw the one, but she acted like it wasn’t the first. We think its crucio damage.”

“Was there any kind of trigger?”

“She was tired that day. I smelled something wrong as Padfoot, but didn’t realize what it meant. She was just reading on the couch and started twitching. She woke up two hours later, begged us not to take her to the hospital. It was one of the nights she stayed at the manor instead of the Dursleys.”

“You sent her back there?”

“We didn’t have a choice.” Sirius snapped. “She said he had magic in place that would hurt her if she was away from the Dursleys for to long. The best we could do was try and help here while she was with us.”

“Alright, I get that. I don’t like it, but there wasn’t much you could do against Fudge and Dumbledore, especially with slave runes involved. Well, she definitely needs to stay here until we get a better handle on the seizures and their triggers. She needs nutrient potions to help with the malnutrition, and needs constant meals until her stomach expands. A full magical evaluation to, we need to see how badly her core is damaged. 

“On the psychological level, you guys weren’t doing to badly. Letting her set the pace, encouraging her to do her best for herself regardless of appearances, she’s academically ahead. I’ll probably ask her teachers in here to give her exams so she can perform to her level, now that Dumbledore’s out of the way. There are a couple of things we need to do. 

“First, no going back to Hogwarts for the foreseeable future. She needs stability, and with what you told me when I cast the diagnostics, she wants relationships. It sounds like she’s pretty self aware about her issues, but I don’t want her away from her support network until we have things sorted out. I don’t think it’s a good idea to sign over custody either until we’ve had a few chances to talk. Sorry James and Lily, but she clearly trusts Sirius if he’s the only one she’ll let have this level of contact, animagus form or no. She needs to stay with him, at least until you two have a chance to form a bond with her.”

James looked green at everything his friends had said. Their silly stories about food fights and color-changing laundry detergent suddenly seemed a lot farther away. Lily had joined him on the bed, curled into his side. 

“That’s all right.” She said. “Whatever’s best for Harry.”

“Second, we need to figure out what to do about the family dynamic. Like I said, staying with Sirius is the best for right now, but we need to look at long term as well. You mentioned packmates a couple of times?”

Sirius nodded. “We’ve always had that sort of dynamic, James Remus and I. James was always alpha, and even though Remus and I dated a few girls, we never really got serious with anyone. Harry thinks it was the wolf magic interacting with our animagus forms, and that affected how we perceive relationships. When Harry was born, we honestly kind of group raised her? Remus and I were there all the time, and she said Moony before she said Daddy. We both had a huge protective urge, but Harry treated all four of us equal, with the exception of nursing.”

Remus took up the concept. “She said she knows she doesn’t see people the same. She doesn’t trust that people who are family are automatically trustworthy, thanks to the Dursleys. She likes to have a tight knit group of people, and sticks with them. Before last year, we think that was her friends Ron and Hermione, but they had a fight earlier this year and never really got back together. She thinks it was because she couldn’t handle two packs at the same time, so she chose us, and didn’t try as hard to mend things. Honestly, though, she always seemed strained around them, like it was just another act for Dumbledore.”

“So you would say that she doesn’t like the concept of family, and has transferred some of those ideas-safety, love support- to the idea of a pack instead. And she sees you as authorities equal to James and Lily?”

“We can’t say as they haven’t talked to each other yet, otherwise, yes.”

“Does she perceive a hierarchy?”

“She jokes about one or the other being beta or acting like an omega, but I don’t think she really gets the dynamic? Like, her jokes are a way to test the waters, and find some kind of hierarchy, but that’s just not the case?” Sirius said.

“Then we definitely need to address that. When there are disagreements, how will you four handle it? Division of roles, that sort of thing. Nip that hierarchy thing in the bud.

“Third, we need to get her comfortable enough with her past that she can put it behind her, but not overly so, to the extent that she thinks it’s normal. The best way to do this is going to be group therapy, I think. Getting her to talk about it, but in a controlled space. How we address the scaring, for example, would also affect this.

“Finally, and probably most important, we need to get her trusting again. Not everybody, obviously, but definitely Lily and James. She literally fought one of the worst terrorists in living memory to get you back. We need to reinforce that that was the right decision. If we push to hard, she’s going to think we are trying to cage her again, and then she’ll lash out. But, if we don’t push enough, she might think you don’t want a relationship.

“The specifics of how we address each of these, and which ones get more focus is going to be a question for after she and I have talked. Then we can hash out a more detailed plan. Any questions?”

“How long till she wakes up?” Lily asked.

“No idea. I’ve never seen core scarring like this. If she’s lashing out magically, it shouldn’t be long though.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> This is my longest chapter yet, so the next one won't come for a while. The new Game of Thrones season bit me with a really bad case of the plot bunnies, so that's taking up a lot of my writing brain right now. Also, I'm going to be dealing with some life stuff (nothing bad, don't worry,) and wont be able to write for a bit. So, sorry, but it definitely wont take longer than three weeks before you get the next chapter. 
> 
> Also, a note on the psychological stuff going on here. I am not a doctor, however, I have been exposed to enough people with experience with this type of thing and the related literature to type up some GENERALITIES based of what I think this FICTIONAL character(s) in a FICTIONAL MAGICAL world would need and recommend. Obviously, I have to talk out of my but for quite a bit of this. NONE OF MY COMMENTS OR CONTENT SHOULD BE TAKEN AS ACTUAL ADVICE. IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW NEEDS HELP, SEE A LICENSED PROFESSIONAL, USE A SUPPORT HOTLINE, OR VISIT WHATEVER RELIGIOUS/COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS YOU RELY ON, DEPENDING UPON THE NEED. I'm trying to address the whole mental illness/trauma side of the story and characters as reliably and respectfully as I can, but at the end of the day, this is fiction. It mirrors real life, without actually being real. Especially when characters can turn into woodland creatures at will, magical elves clean houses, and there are giant monsters underneath children's schools. 
> 
> So essentially, this is how I'm addressing the situation, but I'm human, and take everything mentioned as a comment on the fictional world and not advice for the real one. 
> 
> Constructive Criticism is always appreciated!


	15. The Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Take a guess who I'm talking about.

Harriet Potter was having a marvelous dream involving Padfoot, cotton candy, Weasley twins products, Norbert the Dragon, and her parent’s voices. As she slowly awoke, however, she realized that last bit was not part of the dream at all.

She froze, eyes still closed, remembering what had happened. The graveyard. The ritual. It worked. She brought her parents back.

Shit. She had parents now. What if they didn’t like her? Padfoot and Moony were already going to be mad over locking them in the manor. Would they think she was bad?

While the multiple foster families and social workers, however brief the relationships, had all taught her that the way she was treated was far from normal, she still feared it. The part of her that took the Dursley’s words to heart refused to let go of its expectations. That her parents would see her as freaky just like Petunia had, and try to change her. And Harry refused to change who she was for anyone. Hide her real personality to protect those she loved, absolutely. But change? Not happening.

After a few minutes of lying there, listening to her mom and dad’s indistinct murmurs, someone shifted on Harry’s right side. 

“You wanna lay there all day pup, or you wanna get up and say hello?”

“Fuck off Paddy.” Harry croaked, opening and then immediately squinting her eyes. The monster headache was already starting. 

“Harriet Rose Potter!” Remus scolded. 

“And you to Moony.” Her mom gasped. The sound was new; the few memories of her parents Harry had managed to drag up after years of meditation normally involved laughter or yelling at each other. Mum sounded like Petunia, a comparison that made Harry simultaneously scared and guilty. She really shouldn’t think so badly of her mum, especially before ever meeting her. 

Slowly, testing each muscle, Harry sat up against the headboard, accidentally elbowing Sirius in the face in the process. Serves the asshole right. 

She was sore-par for the course, after the fight she was in. A few cuts and bruises from the scuffle. Her magic was near exhausted; her defensive reserves were close to full, but her active pool? Dryer than the Sahara. 

The rest of the room seemed to hold its breath for a few minutes, while Harry silently sipped on the glass of water Moony had handed her. Sirius was sprawled to her right, cuddled up next to James (don’t get jealous, he loves you to, he just knows not to try and touch you when you’re asleep), with Lily on her father’s other side. Remus was sitting in a chair next to Lily. 

“So… what exactly have you been up to?” Sirius prompted.

“I told you. Same thing as always. Fixing what Dumby broke.”

“By using necromancy?”

“Its not necromancy if the bodies never died.”

A few beats of silence. 

“Thank you.” Lily said. She seemed hesitant, there was a good deal of fear in her eyes. “For bringing us back. How do you feel?”

“Like I got in a fight with two dozen Death Eaters then used up all my magic to resurrect a few thousand people.” Harry sniped. God, she needed an Advil. Or five.

“Sorry.” Lily muttered.

“Harry.” Remus warned. 

“What?”

“Don’t snipe at your mother.”

“I’m not… ugh. My head just hurts, okay?”

Remus handed a vial over. “Healer Tonks said to give you this for the pain. Anything else wrong?”

“Where the fuck are we?”

“St. Mungo’s.”

“Shit. How long am I gonna be held hostage?”

“Held hostage?”

“You telling me they’ll let me walk out if I want to?”

“Well, no.”

“Then yeah, held hostage.”

Remus facepalmed.

“If it makes you feel better, me and your dad are stuck here with you.” Sirius tried. 

“Wait, why are you stuck here?”

“Evaluation of the dementor damage. They wanted to ship me to another room, until Andy pointed out what a bad idea separating someone with chronic abandonment issues from their support network would be.”

“Oh. So, they gave you that pardon and retracted the Kiss order? You’re free?”

“Yep. Do I even want to know how you managed that?” 

Harry smiled. “Moony wasn’t the first person I helped overcome an obliviate. You would think the greatest wizard of the modern age would put more effort into covering up his illegal incarceration orders.”

“How many people do you have working for you by now?”

“Depends. Counting elves, a few hundred. Although I suppose with mum and dad able to take their seats back from me, its goin’ to go down a bit.”

“And you got the aurors to believe you how?”

“Publicly broadcast Pettigrew’s confession. Even if they wanted to put you back in jail, the public would probably riot.”

“Are you sure that was the smartest thing?” Remus asked.

“No, but it was the best of the morally okay options. The other path I saw involved murdering Fudge, Dumbledore, Crouch, and a few dozen others. I prefer the blood free rout. Better PR that way.”

Lily and James, by that point, were staring at her open mouthed. Remus just facepalmed again.

“Could you even manage that?” Sirius asked.

“Oh yeah. Shoot the Death Eaters in the head instead of the knees, poison Dumbledore’s lemon drops. Acid inside Fudge’s hat. We would have been done with this shit months ago, had I gone that route.”

“Would you have done it? If it wasn’t such bad PR?” Remus asked, clearly terrified of the answer.

“Probably Dumbledore, just because then his interference would have ended for sure. Death Eaters are to dangerous to leave alive. Fudge probably could have lived.”

“You would kill people just to see Sirius free?”

“I would kill people to save others. Sirius was strong enough magically and emotionally to survive over a decade of Azkaban. Dumbledore’s next victim might not have been. Not to mention the other kids I noticed him grooming. But, in the long run, if my hand got found, they probably would have had me Kissed before I could become the next Dark Lady or some other bullshit. It just wasn’t worth the personal risk. This won’t be the end though, I’m telling you now. Either Dumbledore or Voldemort are going to break out and start causing damage again. The important thing is, this time, neither of them can rely on general public support. And, the best way to garner that is to make myself seem like the good guy, and take out everyone else in full view of the public. 

“That’s the downside to playing cards close to the vest long-term like Dumbledore did; if the lesser stuff came out periodically, like his relationship with Grindelwald, people would only be up in arms over the big stuff he did. But, because the big and little stuff came out at the same time, he looks even worse. Instead of being out for a bit of blood, people are now out for his head. And that will keep him from ever getting a foothold in Britain again. 

“The way I handled it though, openly admitting some of my secrets, like the abuse makes me more tragic. Yes, if they find some of the not-so-legal stuff I’ve been up to, they might throw a fine my way, but mostly anything objectionable will be brushed under the category of ‘she didn’t have a choice and its not so bad anyways nobody got hurt’.

“And besides, you two wanted to murder the Dursleys a few months ago. I had to curse you both and tie you down before you realized that, as much as you wanted to, it wasn’t the smart thing to do. I came to the same conclusion without evern needing to get my ass kicked. So am I really worse than the two of you?”

“And locking us in the manor?”

Ah, there it was. The real reason they were pissed.

“Are you honestly telling me that if you saw me and Voldemort within range of each other, you wouldn’t have rushed to my defense, army of aurors be damned? You would have gotten arrested, and with the chaos the ministry was going to descend into, it would have taken weeks to get you out.”

“You could have told us what was going on!” Sirius exclaimed.

“Yeah, and then you would have tried to stop me, I’d have to kick your asses and lock you out anyway!”

“You're right, we would have tried to stop you, because facing Voldemort was one of the stupidest things you’ve ever tried to do!” Remus yelled.

“No, it was the smartest. I knew his plan, every ingredient in that potion and every body buried at that cemetery. And I knew how to win. And, if something went wrong, I had a bug out plan in place. This was my one shot to get him, my one shot to bring back mom and dad. And if you think for one second, I was going to choose my life over theirs, you haven’t been paying attention.”

“They died to give you your life!” Sirius snarled.

“What life! Since the moment they died, I’ve been used as a weapon. Against Mum’s memory, against Voldemort, against you! Fighting in one way or another is all I know. So I figured out that I wanted my parents back, and fought for that. Because either way, staying Dumbledore’s little slave or taking the fight to Voldemort, I was going to be risking my life. At least this way, I had a chance of winning what I wanted for once!”

Harry faced away from her dads before she could loose control of her magic and do something she’d really regret. Something shifted, and Harry felt a hand on her back.

“Thank you.” Lily said, “Thank you for saving us, and for trying keep yourself safe as best you could. And, I understand, if you are used to doing these things alone, but you don’t have to anymore. We aren’t saying these things because we want to scold you. You were in an impossible situation, and did the best you could. Can you just, in the future, maybe run these things by us? So that we don’t have to worry so?”

“If I had, they would have stopped me.”

“Yes, because we directly told them multiple times that in a choice between us and you, they were supposed to pick you.”

“And what about the thousands of other victims? Yes, I started to research the killing curse to see if there was a way to bring you two back, but you weren’t the only ones I could help. I did this to save everyone I could. And I couldn’t let them stop me.”

“I know, I know. But, just warn us? Even if it makes things worse on us? Maybe we can see things you cant?”

“Maybe. It doesn’t really matter anymore. If all goes to plan, Bones should chase the rest of the corrupt bureaucrats out. I won’t need to put myself in danger because the aurors will actually be able to do their jobs. I’m under no illusions that these things are better handled, when possible, by the government. It was just getting to this point that I had to worry about. Now, every fight should be political.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m getting kind of tired, and it’s gonna be a long explanation. Later? Its not something we have to worry about for a few weeks at least anyways.”

“Alright baby, get some sleep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Been a while!
> 
> So, next update should be in less than a week. See you then!


	16. Discussions and Preperations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taking in their introductions

“So…” James started, once Harry was well and truly out. “That was interesting.”

“She locked you two in the manor?” Lily inquired. Both marauders nodded. 

“Yeah, drugged us to. Brat.” Remus muttered.

“The worst part,” Sirius whispered, ”is she’s right. We would have gone after her, probably ruined everything. It’s just so hard, even after all the missions, seeing our pup risk herself.”

“Its not something she does lightly though.” Remus said. “You saw her at the cave; she dealt with each spell carefully, had backup at all times, triple checked before each step. And we knew she was building to a confrontation, even if we tried to ignore it. She’s been prepping for this since she was a kid.”

“She’s still is a kid.” Sirius muttered. 

“Do you think Severus is going to get caught up in all this?” Lily asked.

“Probably not. Not with Dumbledore…” Remus realized the error in his logic. “The only reason he’s stayed safe was Dumbledore. With him gone, Snape’s probably in trouble.”

“Good. ‘Bout time. Bloody git.” Sirius muttered.

“I’d like to reprimand you, but after everything I heard when Bones interviewed you two… how could he do that? Legilimens and violate dozens of students?” Lily asked.

“Bitterness.” Remus muttered. “Hated that you died, hated Harry for living, hated Harry for being to much like James.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. I worked with him for a year, and I was the nice teacher first years came to when he yelled at them or took points unfairly or caused someone to get hurt.”

“He wouldn’t…” 

“He did. To first years. To Harry. She mentioned he tried to legilimise her every time he looked her way.”

“Tried?” James asked.

Sirius nodded. “I doubt anyone could get into her head. To foreign-she just doesn’t think the way we do.”

“I noticed that. From the moment we mentioned what happened at the Tournament, she was tense. Like she was waiting for something to go wrong.” James said.

“Because she was.” Remus replied. “I’ve noticed that to; anything she thinks she could possibly get in trouble for, she tenses up at. She doesn’t yell though; just logically explains her choices.”

“Cause she’s ready to get punished. She doesn’t like it, I’d bet she’s terrified we’d abandon her or turn into the Dursleys the second she steps a toe out of line. But she does whatever it is anyways, because there’s no other way.” Sirius informed the group. “What scares me, is there’s no way to reason with her. She’ll nod along alright when you talk to her, but she’s so sure she’s right that she doesn’t listen to anyone else.”

“No, she’ll listen. Remember the cottage? She wanted to do it herself, was convinced it was the best option. We convinced her otherwise, but only when we matched her logic. Sure, she couches it in language and snark, but that’s what it is. Every time, every time we got mad or emotional, she ignored and dismissed us. But that day we came at her with logic, and didn’t loose our tempers, that was the day she decided to let us handle it.” Remus corrected. “The trick is getting her before she does whatever it is. Because once it’s done, she shuts down.”

“You said you noticed that she was headed to a confrontation earlier.” James said, “you noticed it, but didn’t act, because you assumed. But we can’t assume. Does she ever offer up information, or do you have to ask for everything?”

The two friends conferred for a moment. “She offers, but only certain things.” Remus said, “She told us about Mab of her own free will, but not that she faced down a mind controlling Voldemort. That she was named Acting Heires of the House of Black, but not that she got the title by negotiating with Arcturus. She definitely picks and chooses.”

“So we have to figure out the right questions to pre-empt her actions?” James asked.

“And do it in a way where she doesn’t fear us stopping her. The moment we do that, she’ll freeze us out.” Sirius added

“But, if she’s doing something dangerous…” Lily mentioned.

“Then we have to weigh the options. Risk loosing her trust for good, or risk whatever danger she wants to face winning.” Sirius said.

“How do we make a choice like that?” Lily asked. 

The group looked glumly at their cub for a few minutes. 

“Whatever we can.” James surmised. “Even if she hates us for it, we protect our girl.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all!
> 
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos's!
> 
> It occurs to me I haven't mentioned this here yet, so to get it out of the way, I have another fanfic in progress! It's a Game of Thrones one, so if any of y'all are fans, go ahead and check it out!
> 
> Since this is a short one, next chapter coming within two days!


	17. Reunion Round II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trying to get to know each other again

When Harry next showed signs of life, it was a full day later. Healers had been in to check the patients (more rest for Sirius, scans for Harry, and confirmation that James had lost significant nerve connections to his legs, but not all) and aurors to get statements, but otherwise, the family was left to its own devices. Which they were more than willing to take advantage of. Currently, Lily was reading back issues of the Prophet, trying to get a feel for the changes over the last decade, James and Remus were playing chess, and Sirius was trying to flick cotton balls on the board and mess with the pieces. 

Harry was so silent about waking up, and the men so focused on the board, that she managed to sneak right behind Sirius without anyone of the men wiser. 

“Whatcha’ dooin’!” she yelled, just behind her godfather’s ear.

Chess pieces immediately went flying, shouting obscenities at the “bratty bastard”.

Lily burst out laughing, having seen the tail end of Harry’s approach and enjoying the spectacle. James and Remus both jumped as well, and then immediately joined Lily.

Sirius, who had flailed off the bed and onto the floor at that point, shifted into Padfoot and started slobbering all over the teenager, who made every attempt to leverage him off. The other adults, useless as always, offered no assistance.

“Alright, alright I’m sorry! Uncle, uncle!” Harry gave in.

Sirius jumped off her, and gave the other two men a good slobber for laughing at him, before turning back. 

“Good. Cheeky brat, scarring her poor defenseless godfather like that.”

“Aren’t you the one trained by Mad-Eye ‘Constant Vigilance!’ Moody?” Lily asked.

“I’m in the hospital! If I can’t let my guard down here, where can I be truly safe.”

“Um, isn’t that the point? You’re not safe anywhere? Hence the ‘constant’ bit of the phrase?’ Harry pointed out.

“James, they’re ganging up on me!”

“Girls, you know better. Leave room for me and Moony to join in.”

“Traitor!”

“How are you feeling baby?” Lily asked, ignoring the bickering boys in favor of her daughter. She reached a hand to move hair away from those gorgeous green eyes, but stopped with her had a foot away at Harry’s flinch.

“Much better, thank you. I’m not all the way back yet, probably need another week or two to recharge magically, but the crucio seems to have worn off.”

“Oh. That’s…good?”

“Yes, it is. Having either magic or body inoperable is difficult for me, but as long as one is working, I’m in far better shape.” She noticed the paper. “Whatcha reedin’?”

“Oh, just the paper. Trying to catch up.”

“With the Prophet? Don’t bother. Here.” 

In a moment, Harry reached for her elf bond. It was still as strong as ever, but far expanded now that she had claimed her birthright at Hogwarts. Far healthier to, for although the elves were all bonded to her, all of her elves now fed off the magic of the Hogwarts students.

House elf magic was on a different frequency than what wizards usually used, and so was mostly inaccessible to them. Because of this, the elves could feed off of the children of Hogwarts without affecting the important part of core development, the moderation of accessible magic. And all elves bonded to Harry, from the Potter elves who raised her to Kreacher (insane though he was) to the hundreds of Hogwarts elves, shared the same energy pool.

And Harry, thanks to her mimicry of their magic, could feel all of them.

She reached out through the strands connecting her to each elf, past the strands that reminded her of linen and wool and silk, to something courser, rougher. A thick hemp cord, hard to grasp, the type that could cause splinters in the skin, but stronger than nearly every other cord, and she sent a strand of her magic down it with an image of the newspaper stack on her bookshelf at the manor.

Willie popped in immediately, papers in hand, rough wool trousers still covered with flecks of hay. Willie had always been Harry’s closest, along with Emmy. They were the two parents of her early years; her protector and healer, example of kindness and pillar of strength. She made sure to cook with Emmy regularly, and call Willie more than any other elf, to show them how they were appreciated.

Willie gently placed the papers on the small rolling table at Lily’s side, before hugging Harry.

In the hive mind, she could just feel him. Warmth and love and safety and obedience and pride all rolled together into something she had never felt from any other elf. 

This, she knew, was the core of the problem. He wasn’t bad by any means, or a problem to be solved. He was just different. The other elves thought in words, he thought in feelings and pictures. Even years after she had fixed his ears, which had caused the initial problem, he couldn’t change the way he was wired. So, she and the others loved him as he was, not as they wished he could have been. After all, if he saw the world the way the others did, he never would have saved her from the Dursleys.

As soon as her panic at contact began to overtake Willie’s love, he pulled away and popped out. 

“Read these.” Harry said, holding the emotions her honorary big brother always brought on close inside, so that none of it would show. “They’re the Quibler, and more accurate than the Prophet.”

Lily took a cursory look over the headlines. “Heliopaths? Crumple-horned Snorcracs?”

“Oh yes, such a good issue that one. They found the latter being pulled between the former. Quite an interesting read, I can’t wait for the next issue’s update…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all!
> 
> Next update probably Wednesday!
> 
> Constructive Criticism Appreciated!


	18. Cleanup Round 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ministry finally has a slight handle on things

“Alright, where are we? Lisa?” Amelia asked, striding into the conference room.

Lisa stood up, her auburn hair up in a neat bun for once rather than the usual curls. 

“We have all but three hundred of the children placed. Turns out, Potter also resurrected the twenty thousand or so muggle victims, including the parents of the hundred fifty or so muggle-born she resurrected on the quidditch pitch. We’ve coordinated with Sally.” Lisa nodded to the elderly woman across the table, head of the Muggle Liaison Office and Muggle Worthy Excuse Committee, “who said that it will take several weeks before the muggles will let us send the muggle-born back. About half of the children left are orphans, the other seventy are children of Death Eaters. We have been trying to track down nearest kin that hasn’t been convicted, but it isn’t easy to sort the family trees. It’s likely many of those kids will end up in foster care.”

“What about having them adopted? Is that an option?” Zander asked.

“No,” Lisa said. “Technically, unless the parent was abusive, someone else has to sue for custody, or the child stays in the parent’s custody. Even Azkaban inmates have the right to be parents, although being in Azkaban automatically means the child has to go to foster care or a family member. So, unless the Death Eaters relinquish custody willingly, the kids will be stuck in the system.”

“That’s awful.”

“But there’s nothing we can do.” Bones sighed. “Do you have enough foster families Lisa?”

“No, but about half of the three hundred kids are Hogwarts age. That cuts down the need. And I have a few families that have come to me asking to become foster parents since the mess started. I’m looking at fast tracking those applications. It won’t solve everything, but the extra help wouldn’t go awry.”

“It’ll have to do. Zander, the adults?”

“As we predicted, we are down to about four thousand individuals. The Wizengamot Houses have been taking in their own members for the most part, so it’s mostly the recently formed families we’re dealing with. About four hundred of the remaining are talking about joining family oversees, and applying for the necessary documentation. The problem is, while the goblins held on to all those family’s wizarding assets, many of them lived in the muggle world. With the muggles executing the wills, several hundred people have nowhere to go.”

“Have you coordinated with the muggle government?” 

“Tried.” Sally spoke up, hands folded over her cane. “But they’re swamped as well. They said to give these forms to aurors, and have them filled out for each family in that situation. Unfortunately, these people would have to sue to get their possessions back.”

“We’ll come back to you in a second, Sally, but that does bring up some important questions. Zander, any idea of what getting these people working will take?”

“Time.” Zander said. “The good news is places like clothing stores are already hiring extra personnel to help with the influx they know they’ll get. Same with a couple of other fields. But honestly, it’s just going to take time. I’ve talked with some of the guys at legal, they said the Ministry could rent the abandoned Wizard dwellings that go unclaimed by resurrected in the next couple weeks to those in dire need, ask them to pay it back once they get their feet under them. But this is quickly morphing from an administrative to an economic nightmare.”

“Alright, solutions? Anyone?”

“Well, we’ve got a few donations that would help.” Samson, a blond man from accounting mentioned. “The Houses of Black, Potter and Gaunt have set up a fund to help provide necessities, and are offering loans with generous interest rates to the returned. Maybe see if others would donate to the fund, or offer the same kind of deals? Those same families are also offering a few buildings for rent, and are willing to defer rent payments for six months for the returned.”

“Good idea, Zander, get the word out. See who else is willing to chip in. Sally, how’re the muggles doing?”

“They panicked at first.” Sally said. “We can’t obliviate the muggles, there are just to many, and the memories of being attacked are so vivid obliviates would likely fail anyways. They’ve called for international help dealing with their resurrected, but once I realized they were in the same position as us and explained what happened, they seamed to calm. The best thing we can do is tell the muggle resurrected that they were attacked by terrorists with a new kind of weapon, and that they were in comas for a decade or more. The rest of things, the muggles are handling.”

“Good, one less problem for us. Rick? Any lawsuits yet?”

“Several, all from higher-ranked and wealthier houses. Most of them we’ve fended off, or don’t really need to worry about. Generally, everyone seems to celebratory to try and sue us at the moment.”

“Keep me posted. Samson, you mentioned finances. What do I need to know.”

“Get those people working as fast as possible and off the Ministry dole. Otherwise, make sure to keep the lawsuits at bay. And encourage donations to the Resurrected Trust.”

“Will do. Scrimonger, our guests and evidence processing?”

“We found about fifty Death Eaters among the returned, all of whom are in Azkaban awaiting trial. We discovered amongst the evidence Potter compiled that the Dark Mark must be taken willingly. So, we rounded up everyone with a mark and opened investigations. Generally, we have about two hundred people awaiting trial at this point, including Dumbledore. 

“Dumbledore is apparently not doing well in Azkaban. As the Supreme Mugwump, he also falls under ICW jurisdiction. They are not happy to say the least. They said that if we don’t lock him up for the rest of his life, they will. So, he’s under control.

“Voldemort seems to have gone catatonic. The Dementors have to spoon feed him. Terrible way to go, that. Couldn’t happen to a meaner bloke.

“All things considered, even only getting half way through Potter’s evidence, we have enough to keep the bastards where they are until hell freezes over. 

“The main problem is the Dumbledore supporters. We’ve had three near riots, two in Hogsmede and one in Diagon Alley. A few people also tried to break into St. Mungo’s, apparently to get revenge for having ‘the greatest wizard of all time’ arrested. We’ve got a full team handling security for her and her… pack.” Scrimonger nearly snarled the last word. 

“Perhaps we need to have a discussion about her? What exactly is going to happen?” Zander asked.

“Well, she’s going to stay with her parents and packmates.” Lisa started, only to be interrupted by Samson.

“What is all this about packmates in the first place? Is the girl a secret werewolf or something?”

“No, but that’s what she calls her family. It’s actually part of her healing regimen, having others refer to it as such. It’s because her uncle and godfather both have canine forms, and her father is a stag Animagus. They’re all highly social animals, and so many of them living in proximity caused a sort of pack-dynamic. And honestly, if the term makes the most sense to them, who are we to judge?

“Anywho, she’ll stay with them and the Tonks family at Potter Manor over the summer. Whether she’s going back to Hogwarts is up for debate. She’s requested to take her OWLs this summer. Examiners have been in to quiz her over the last week, and all said that she is definitely ready for OWLS, possibly more depending on her practical level. Overall, she’s in good shape.”

“What are we doing about Black and Lupin?” Scrimonger asked.

“What do you mean, Rufus?” Amelia questioned. 

“Black is a criminal, and Lupin helped him stay on the run…”

“No, Rufus. We are not prosecuting anyone in that family, especially not now. They did nothing wrong. Try to have them arrested again, and I’ll be removing you from any influence on their security detail. Lisa, Rick, anything we need to know about her Houses?”

“Well, Lily Potter had herself registered as Lady Slytherin and Lady Gaunt.” Rick replied. “Black is also apparently Lord Ravenclaw, Lupin is Lord Hufflepuff and a Prince of Magical Italy, somehow, although that means nearly nothing, and James Potter is claiming the Peverell and Gryffindor headships as well. All four have named Harry Potter their heir.”

“What!” a collective shout filled the room.

“Yep. Apparently, a member of the House of Black won the Ravenclaw seat by right of conquest three centuries ago and nobody noticed. The Dagworth-Granger family did the same with the Hufflepuff clan in the 1400’s. Lily Potter won Slytherin and Gaunt when she destroyed Voldemort on Halloween in ’81. And the Potter line has been linked to the Peverells and Gryffindor for centuries, but couldn’t claim Gryffindor until the other three Greater and Noble Houses returned due to some obscure inheritance rule. They also collectively own Hogwarts. Apparently they sent letters out retiring the Board of Governors yesterday.”

“Why would they do that!” Scrimonger shouted.

“Harry.” Croaker said from his shadowy corner. 

“What do you mean?” Bones asked.

“Hogwarts has the highest elf population in Britain. Potter is the Titania Elvana. She has an urge to protect all the elves she can. The best way to do that is to control Hogwarts.”

“Does this affect the ministry at all?” Zander asked.

“Not really.” Rick said. “It might if they start making sweeping changes, but I doubt it. Why change what isn’t broken. It’ll probably come to nothing.”

“Good.” Amelia said. “The last thing we need is more problems. Any other comments?”

Head shakes all around. 

“We’ll meet on Tuesday next week. Have a good weekend you lot.”


	19. The Parlor (Hiatus Notice!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back home!

Ted Tonks was reviewing various evidence reports the DMLE had allowed him to access when the floo flared. He glanced at the clock across the parlor, and noticed it was far later than he had thought.

The main parlor at Potter Manor was small, by wizarding manor’s standards. Several seating areas, decked out in red and purple leather, scattered about the room. The large glass windows allowed plenty of light to offset the dark wooden furniture. The walls, a soothing grey color, were covered in pictures of various family members and friends of the late Lord Fleamont and Lady Euphemia’s.

Ted gathered up his papers into a folder, watching the first few people step (or fall, in one case) out of the floo. 

Remus Lupin, first through, looked rather well, all considered. His understated brown robes were well fitting and new, a change his daughter said he had young Harry to thank for. It was much easier getting respect for a client that didn’t dress as if eternally homeless. 

Sirius was next through, beard neatly trimmed. He was wearing robes in Ravenclaw colors. Apparently, several of the elder members of the Black clan still living were pissed that the Gryffindor was now the Lord, and said Lord had decided to favor the Ravenclaw colors just to spite them more. Andy and Ted had both crowed with glee when said family elders realized the Lady Slytherin was a muggleborn.

Both men took a side of the floo, attempting (and failing) to catch the teenager on her way out. Harry’s hair was bright green at the moment (she and Nymphadora had taken to competing for most offensive hair color ever since St. Mungo’s had removed the magic bindings). Harry looked far better than when he had visited her in the hospital, the rest clearly having helped. She jumped away the moment she was steady, and her packmates let her.

Lily came through next, red hair rioting after the floo’s momentum. She quickly straightened her green and silver robes (because Sirius insisted on thumbing it to the bigots), and pulled Remus to the side with her as the final two came through.   
Andy pushed James out of the fireplace in his wheelchair. It was a large affair, almost thronelike, with a back that reached to Ted’s (admittedly short) shoulder and intricate engravings. James himself looked well, gold rimmed glasses on his face where they belonged, hair ridiculously unkempt. Andy, in her green healer’s robes, moved him into the room slowly, towards Ted’s seating area, as Lily looked on in visible concern. 

As soon as the Lord and Lady of the manor were in attendance, several elves popped in.

“Little Lady!”

“Lady Lilly!” 

“Lord James!”

“You’s bes looking pale.”

“I hopes yous been eating properly.”

“Lord Doggie, yous not bes getting them into more trouble. No No No.”

“Lord Wolfie! Hot chocolate bes on the stove in the kitchen.”

“Titania! Titania! Wes finish planting the gillyweed, just like yous said!” 

And so on. The dozen or so little beings hopped around joyously, mostly around Harry. The ridiculous number of elves was, unfortunately, fairly standard around the mansion. Harry had a habit of adopting or fostering elves that had been let go, until arrangements could be made for new families. Of course, there was far to little work for the elves on Potter properties, so Harry had taken to renting the little guys out to other houses. Several of the newer wizarding households, as well as those that lived primarily muggle and couldn’t own their own elf by law, had taken advantage, and so the two dozen or so elves that didn’t like Hogwarts were often at the manor between jobs, chattering away to anyone if given the chance. 

The commotion continued for several minutes, before all of the elves suddenly fell silent. 

It was an odd thing, the way the elves interacted with Harry. Andy had told him about it, but this was the first time he saw it himself. The elves, a species he had never seen hold still in his life, all stood like statues. In a slow wave, each would stare at Harry for several moments, before jumping into a hug and popping away. After five minutes, the humans were alone once more. 

“Everything alright?” Lily asked. Ted remembered how surprised he’d been at first by her voice. All the stories that got told about the brave Lily Potter, she who stood up to the Marauders on a regular basis, never mentioned her shyness. Unless she was yelling at her husband. Then she didn’t give a wit about other people.

“Fine.” Harry said.

A few moments of silence passed as people sat around the coffee table before Andy coughed suggestively. 

“The gilllyweed I wanted planted is finally in the lake near the Warnethood. Two new hippogriff chicks as well, and an abraxan colt. A few other creatures were born.”

“All Potter animals?” James asked, accepting a cup from the tray that had appeared. 

“Yes, except for the basilisk situation, of course.”

“What situation?”

“Oh, Mab and I are talking about hatching a few more.”

“Isn’t breeding those without a license illegal?” Remus asked.

“Breeding them on British soil is. Luckily, anything below three hundred feet is Goblin territory. Ragnok and I are talking.”

“I thought goblins ate basilisk meat?” Sirius inquired.

“They do, but it’s more valuable the older the snake is. And basilisks don’t mind what happens to them if they die of natural causes. If I train the hatchlings right, the goblins want to use them for vault security, and essentially rent the beasts from me. Like I said, still working on the deal. And incubation takes years, so we have a while to wait yet before I have to worry. So, Ted, legal stuff. What’s going on? You said you needed to talk to us ASAP?” Harry diverted the discussion.

“You should probably get settled in before you talk shop.” Andromeda scolded. 

“They can. I’m already set up assuming…. Yeah, Willie says they got my stuff from Hogwarts. I’m good. How are the lawsuits going Ted?”

The lawyer looked anxiously between his wife and employer (the last week had shown him the teenager was really the one in charge of his employment, and her godfather just signed when she told him to).Andy seemed to acquiesce after a moment.

“Yes, well, the Prophet is threatening to sue us for defamation if we don’t drop it…”

“To bad. They wont win. The public won’t stand for it, not after what I did last week.”

“You’re suing a company you own?” James asked.

“Not really, I’m actually suing multiple reporters and the upper management for defamation, libel and slander. However, since it’s effectively half the workforce, It’s easier to just lump them together.”

“Several of the reporters on your list have offered apologies.” Ted interrupted. “A few sent letters explaining they got the quotes from interviews in the resource files or past articles, and didn’t realize the original sources were fraudulent. Several also claimed the quotes were given to them by Dumbledore…“

“Shuffle them to the front of the pile then. We can cross-reference the Prophet’s master files with their articles, see if it’s true. As for the ones Dumbledore futsed with… I want a public apology from them, otherwise we can let it go. It’s not the reporters’ faults Dumbledore’s an ass.”

“Wait, you mean all the articles quoting you over the years?” Remus asked. “You said to ignore them when I asked last year…”

“Yeah, because we couldn’t do anything about them without tipping our hand. Now we can, so I’m suing away. After my lawsuits, we’re moving on to the ones involving Sirius. The Ministry offered a good deal, so we can’t sue them, but we can sue everyone who used the term ‘convict’ for somebody who was never actually convicted. Once that’s done, its on to publishers and toy manufacturers that made money off of me.”

“You’re going to be suing people for years at this rate!” Sirius exclaimed. 

“Probably not.” Ted corrected. “The Prophet leadership is planning on joining together, hiring a joint defense for everyone we’re suing…”

“Well, it’ll make wining easier. Only one trial and all.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Lily hesitated. “That’s a lot of enemies.”

Harry scoffed. “What else is new? At least all the enemies who did actual physical damage are out of the way. What else are we looking at Ted?”

“I have the custody papers here, so all four of you will have partial custody. Sirius will still be primary guardian, but you will each have enough of a say to sign permission slips and the like. All you need to do is sign.” The group proceeded to sign the goblin-bound custody documents, which glowed gold as the magical and legal guardianship was updated. 

“Now that’s done.” Ted continued, “The Ministry is arguing that if you’re well enough to come home, you’re well enough to testify. They want you in front of the Wizengamot ASAP.”

“Okay, what for?”

“The Wizengamot members I’ve talked to say to clear things up and thank you. I’ve heard rumors about an Order of Merlin. Unfortunately, the Ministry administrators themselves are in a tizzy. The Acting Minister, Delores Umbridge, is one of the most vile toads I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. She’s clearly out for your head.”

“What can she legally do?”

“Well, since the Wizengamot has named Anthony Abbot the acting Chief Warlock, relatively little. Its only the administrative side she can mess with; getting permits, documents, so on. The Minister normally only has day-to-day power as it is, and the Wizengamot are all looking at this to closely for her to interfere much. But still, she can cause a stink if we aren’t careful.”

“If I recall, that woman is a half-blood who believes in pureblood supremacy, right? Her blood status alone should let us keep her under control. I’m not to worried.” Harry replied.

“What do you mean her blood status gives you control?” James asked suspiciously. 

Harry smirked. “One of the most effective ways to deal with those racist asses, I’ve found, is to point out their own hypocrisy. Especially the crazies and megalomaniacal. If I need her out of the way, all I need to do is get her to admit blood status matters. Then, I point out her muggle father, instantly getting one half of the Wizarding World to turn on her for her blood status, and the other half turning on her for hypocrisy, if not the outright racism. Boom, problem gone.”

“And you got this ammunition how?” Remus asked, leaning forward in his chair to give his cub his best whatever-you-dd-better-not-have-been-illegal look.

“Grandfather Arcturus,” Sirius shivered as he always did when Harry referred to the former Lord Black as such. “Gave me Cassiopeia Black’s old blackmail binders.”

“Why do I get the feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg?” Ted muttered.

“Because it will be.” Sirius snapped. “The woman was a vicious little dog, always finding someone to chew on and shaking them till they came apart. If this little brat,” Sirius flicked Harry on the nose, “has access to all her work, I’m surprised the wizarding world hasn’t descended into anarchy already.”

“Oh, don’t worry. All of my anarchist plans are only for after we’ve taken over Hogwarts.” Harry replied. Both canine marauders immediately gulped and scotched back. “Anything else imminent Ted? No? Cool, I’m gonna go cook.” 

The various adults watched the green-haired teenager prance out of the room, before turning to each other.

“Okay, what do we really need to know?” James demanded. 

Ted sighed. He did not like keeping things from Harry- he was worried that she would make a move unaware of what her parents were pulling. 

“The Wizengamot has declared you alive and acknowledged the Lord and Ladyships. You also officially own Hogwarts-we dug up the documentation at the Ministry as proof. I dismissed the Board of Governors like you asked. They weren’t happy, some friends in the ministry warned me to expect lawsuits. Umbridge is pulling the same schtick; passing Ministry orders that affect Hogwarts. Luckily, her motions to prevent your ascendance to Head of House, Lily, was blocked by the traditionalists. However, there are a bunch of calls for Lord Black to appear, a few dozen attempts to still frame him as a Death Eater.” Ted tossed the folder he had been flipping through on the table. 

“It gets worse. Somehow, the Titania Elvana headache got out.” Ted complained, taking a long swig from the tea cup Parky had just refilled. 

“Which is?” Lily asked. 

Sirius snorted. “Essentially, every few decades, a witch or wizard learns to perform magic in line with a different magical creature. We call them Fey. It confers a bunch of really stupid and archaic titles and responsibilities, including acknowledgement that the witch or wizard has dual citizenship between the magical race they identify with-in Harry’s case, House Elves-and makes them a kind of ambassador between the magical race and wizards. The problem is, this also means acknowledging House Elves as an independent race, serving wizards within the confines of an ancient treaty. A treaty witches and wizards have been ignoring for centuries.”

“So, Harry, by virtue of existing, forces the Wizengamot to treat house elves as equals? That doesn’t seem to bad.”

“Not when you consider the actual treaty.” James explained. “Andy brought me a copy to look over, and wizards are not going to be happy. The treaty directly puts a limit on how long or how hard house elves can work, what you can’t do to a house elf, housing requirements, and a ratio of wizards to elves in a household. And wizards have ignored every point for centuries. Even Potters have broken them a few times. And house elves, unlike other magical creatures, are dependent upon wizards to survive, so unlike other such treaties, a neutral party is needed to judge all disputes. So, Titania Elvanas have far more power than a normal Fey, because they are the only ones considered to understand both sides.”

“So, Harry is a mediator? Why would that cause an uproar?”

“Because, historically, every time a Fey has existed and their magic race has been treated as horribly as house elves, it resulted in war.” Remus exposited. “Most of the goblin rebellions resulted from a Fey demanding that wizards obeyed their treaties. And wizards rarely win such wars. Entire magical houses have been wiped out in the past. Add to that, Titania Elvanas have a habit of picking up other Fey titles- Morgana identified with over a hundred magical species, and she started out as an Elvana. And her actions completely overturned the old Warlock’s council and re-wrote the way magicals interact. Heck, pre-Morgana, witches could have their magic bound at birth so that they would never overtake their husbands, and were essentially treated as property. It was the doing a way of that practice that caused the increase in witches doing accidental magic, and eventually led to the witch burnings. Now, while most people would argue reforms like ending the use of slave runes was a good thing, including myself, it did cause most old families to be stripped of power and completely brought low. People lost land, wealth, magical power…”

“Its not necessarily that Harry will do any of that.” Sirius picked up. “But if she tried, she could seriously threaten the status quo. And none of the old families want that.” 

“You mean like by discovering an ancient ritual to resurrect people thought dead, claiming ownership of the most prestigious magical school in Britain, and having some of the highest ranking political figures arrested for terrorism?” Andy pointed out.  
James nodded. “That’s probably part of what has them so scared. Last time Amelia came to interview us, she mentioned that there was enough evidence to charge every single person they arrested with treason. If Harry just wiped out the pureblood majority in one week, with one swoop, and undid a significant portion of Voldemort’s work as a child, the Wizengamot has no idea what she’ll do with house elves. She could very literally, by the terms of the treaty, strip three generations of wizards of their magic to make up the magical debt we owe the elves. And if that happens, the wizarding world as an entity is done for.”

“We are talking about the same kid, right?” Lily asked. “Four foot five, color changing hair, likes putting woopy cushions in the hospital beds up the hall?”

“You haven’t seen the Digory boy’s memory of the graveyard fight.” Ted said. “That girl is not a child-not anymore. Actually, that brings up another point. There has been some public outcry about her use of a gun.”

“Harry knows how to use a gun!” Lily shrieked. 

“Yes.” Ted replied once his ears stopped ringing. “Very effectively, as a matter of fact. She shot about half of the Death Eaters she caught last week. Several of the Death Eater’s lawyers found out how she incapacitated their clients, and a few articles were in the Prophet. Umbridge is trying to have guns marked as on the same level as unforgivables.”

“Okay, I can see that.” Lily said. “The Wizengamot can’t make that illegal retroactively right?”

“No, but it hurts my agenda if they do any kind of legislation on the topic.” Harry said, stepping around the corner. Several of the adults jumped.

“Hey baby, everything okay?” Lily asked. Harry’s face flashed with hurt. 

“Well, for starters, you’re all having a talk about me without including me.” Harry snapped.

“Harry, we were just…” James tried.

“Discussing me and my potential political decisions without me, like I’m not even capable of thinking for myself. Honestly! If you want to further your own agendas, fine, but don’t you dare get in the way of mine! And that starts with not keeping info from me!”

With a stomp and wave of her hand, Harry stormed off, leaving the adults glancing at each other in confusion.

“How did she even know what we were talking about?” Sirius asked the silent room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> So, first off, hiatus notice. That life stuff i mentioned a few weeks ago? Yeah, it's happening over the next chunk of time. So, there is a two to three week hiatus coming up. The good news is, it's guaranteed to be no longer than three weeks. and, wile the hiatus is due to an inability to write, I may still be able to check the comments and stuff. So I'll likely be active, just not writing.
> 
> So, have a good few weeks and I'll see you soon!


	20. Shooting Range

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talking! Over weapons!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Fair warning, this chapter briefly touches on suicidal thoughts. So be warned. If you or someone you know needs help, please call a hotline or professional.

Remus found Harry in the basement room she had retrofitted for a shooting gallery, blasting holes through the head of a paper target. This particular target was of Lucius Malfoy, hair impeccable and cane raised in a haughty manner.

The shooting gallery was one of several ‘projects’ Harry had taken to over the last year. She actually rarely practiced shooting herself; maybe a time a week, either at the manor or the Come-And-Go room. Instead, she insisted Sirius practice for at least three hours a week. It was part of her plan to help Sirius compensate for the nerve damage he got from untreated frostbite. Some complicated wand movements would be forever out of his reach, including several of the nastier dueling spells, but his fingers worked well enough to pull a trigger if a quick sticking charm was applied to the handle. Sirius and Remus humored her, since they figured there were worse ways to cope with separation anxiety than to know everyone was taking self-defense seriously.

Of course, Sirius needed a little encouragement to use the loud muggle devices, and if the targets also gave him a way to vent anger… well, it couldn’t make his mental state worse, Remus supposed.

A blue light went on at the end of the gallery when Remus entered-one of several safety features Harry had spelled into the room- and Harry finished off the clip before disassembling a few parts and placing the small handgun on the counter in front of her. 

“What do you want.” The teen snapped at her pack-father. 

“To talk.” Remus said, one hand out like he was calming an angry dog. 

“About?”

“Your little outburst.”

“No.” Harry said, picking up the gun pieces and heading towards the rack at the back of the room. She had surprisingly quite the collection; few small handguns, two larger ones that could hold more bullets and fire more rapidly, and a strange rifle tied in a knot, which was apparently stolen from Vernon, and kept for sentimental reasons. And all of them technically illegal, not that anybody important really cared.

Of course, there were several empty spots on the shelves as well, where a few handguns had once rested. Remus suspected they were part of one of her projects, although he couldn’t be sure. Nobody was allowed into her workroom unless something had blown up. Only two elves had access at will, Willie and Emmy, otherwise, Harry handled her entire lab herself.

“Yes, we are having this talk Harry. You can either talk to me, or I’ll have Andromeda turn this into a family session.” The werewolf threatened, letting a bit of a growl out into his voice. 

The growling was one of several things Andromeda noticed in her daily therapy sessions with the small pack. Apparently, Remus and Sirius hadn’t even realized that they used it, or that it worked so well on Harry. Of course, they had taken note that she did the same thing around them long before, but never that they mirrored that behavior. Andromeda speculated it had to do with Harry’s embracing of ‘pack mentality’, that Harry was more in touch with their animal forms than their human selves. The fact that she reacted far better to Padfoot than Sirius, as well as to Prongs over James, was taken as evidence of that argument.

“Fine!” Harry snapped, crossing her arms and leaning against the shelving. “What do you have to say?”

“First of all, that I understand what you said. You have plans, and keeping information from you can make this more dangerous for everybody. I’d be a bit offended at how few of these plans you’re telling us about, but honestly, I know that’s hard for you.” Remus walked forward slowly and carefully as he spoke, keeping his body just to the side, and leaving enough room for Harry to run to the door if she wanted to. He reached a hand towards her shoulder, keeping it six inches from actually touching, and still in Harry’s line of sight. 

“I know trusting is a problem. And that’s fine, after everything you’ve done, you’re allowed to trust at your own pace. But can you at least understand that we have our own plans? And that just like you, we need to do some things for ourselves?”

“You can do that without hiding things from me!” Harry yelled, stomping her foot. 

“I know you want to know what’s going on, but you keep secrets to. How is it okay for you to keep secrets from us as big as the returning, but not for us to do the same?”

“I keep secrets to keep people safe! If Dumby or Minister Fuckup find out what I’m planning for the Ministry…”

“Dumbledore is in Azkaban. Fudge is in Azkaban. They are both losing their positions, minimum. They can’t hurt you anymore.”

“And what about you guys!” Harry shot back, the pale lines of her scars standing out against her red face. 

“What about when they try to smear you? What about when word gets out that you are sharing custody? The Ministry can’t stop Mom and Dad from signing the papers, but they can have all four of you named incompetent! And then I’ll end up back at the Dursleys all over again and this time I won’t have a way out! I put everything on the third task Moony! Everything! If one thing goes wrong this entire house of cards could collapse on us and I cant...” Harry fell to her knees shaking. Willie appeared a few feet behind the teen, but stayed back at Remus’s shaken head. 

“I can’t loose what I’ve been fighting for Moony. It’s the only reason I have not to give in to the memories, to go dark just like he did. And I’ll end it before I turn into that.”  
Remus waited a few moments, letting Harry sob on her own, studiously ignoring the small shuffles behind the half open door at his back. 

“We wont let that happen.” The werewolf finally murmured, kneeling himself and brushing a few fingers ever so lightly along his cub’s hair. It was going frizzy at her upset, curling in all directions worse than Hermione’s. “But that’s why we are trying so hard to keep up on this. Because at the end of the day, Voldemort was alone. But you aren’t. You found a way out, and unlike him, you took it rather than sink into that darkness. You don’t have to do this alone anymore, cub.”

“I… I don’t know how. Every time I hear people talking about me I worry that I put my trust in another Dumbledore who’ll just use me and I can’t…”

“There isn’t any easy way to fix that cub. Andromeda says that getting past trust issues takes time, its fine.”

“Its not fine! The whole point was to have a family again, but the second someone tries to act like we are one, I mess it up.”

“Not every time.” Harry peeked out of her hands to glare at the man. “I mean it. You are really good at dealing with Sirius when he gets into his moods. And you always start baking just when we need a distraction.” Seeing the green haired girl relax, he inched forwards a few inches, enough to run his entire hand through her hair. “And you are far better about letting your parents hug you than you were with me and Siri. And you can tell exactly when pranks will go over better, or when to leave them be.” Harry reached forwards, turned so Remus’s arm could be around her shoulders, and rested her head on the grey wolf’s chest. “Yeah, you mess up sometimes. Everyone does. We see how hard you try. And we trust that everything comes from a place of love. We don’t hide things to plot against you, we just leave things out to try and make it easier.”

“You don’t. It doesn’t.”

“And I think I see that now. We can’t tell you every little detail we come across, but maybe some kind of family meeting or something? So we don’t accidentally step on each other’s toes, especially politically? We don’t know what you need to hear if you don’t talk to us cub.”

“Yeah… Yeah, I think I’m starting to see that. Its easier with the elves. I just think of a plan, and the second I need something, they’re there. I think I keep forgetting that you can’t sense that.”

“Exactly. But, we’ll keep talking about it and working on it until we get this right. Okay?” she nodded into his chest, and Willie quietly popped away. “Now, lets get off this floor and make sure Sirius hasn’t broken something in the last few minutes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty guys. So, my update schedule. The current round of life stuff might be over, but I know more is coming. So, I've decided to trade off updates with my other fic, thereby reducing my load. I will still use my update-size based system, where every five hundred words means another day before the next update. I will put the gestimated date of the next update to this story in the author's notes, although keep in mind it might be a day or two off if something goes wrong. 
> 
> Expected update ; July 2nd
> 
> Constructive Criticism appreciated!


	21. The hallway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily is not happy and Remus has done his research

“So, you going to keep hiding there?” Remus asked. Lily immediately felt herself blush as she crept out from behind the door to the shooting gallery. She had followed Remus down after the confrontation in the parlor, when he had told her to stay behind. Sirius had given her a look, but said nothing, and she had arrived outside the door just as Harry started screaming.

She had stayed back on Andy’s advice-the woman had been quick to point out, in that first week, that Harry was never going to respect her own or her husband’s authority if they didn’t respect Sirius and Remus’s. But even knowing Andy was good at this, that she had experienced helping abused kids and their families adjust, much of the healer’s advice didn’t sit well.

Honestly, who was she to deny Lily her role in Harry’s life? Lily was her mother! Yes, she was gone for a while, but surely it couldn’t be that different? Harry was still the sweet, slightly mischievous child she had birthed, how could anyone understand her child better than her?

The therapy sessions had quickly disabused her of that notion. During the first one, Harry had insisted they watch a set of memories, declaring “If Amelia knows this stuff, so should you”. The group then proceeded to watch the litany of abuses she had provided Amelia, before returning to the room to find Harry in the corner, tucked into the fetal position. She had refused to talk for the rest of that day, became jittery whenever anyone got within six feet, and refused to look anyone in the eye.   
Lily tried to talk to her dozens of times, but each time, Remus would tug her shoulder and encourage Lily to go to the other side of the room. He said he could smell the fear, that it was best to give her space. 

It broke Lily’s heart when, in the early evening, Sirius in his dog form finally got Harry to react to something. He crawled up to her, tongue lolling out, and suddenly Harry was relaxing. She started playing tug with an old knotted shirt that appeared from somewhere (“Willie” Remus had muttered into Lily’s ear), and eventually she moved to the beds, still shoved together against one wall, with Padfoot across her lap to listen to Remus’s story.

Each time Harry got quiet, every time she flinched under Lily’s hand, she wanted to tear Dumbledore and her stupid sister limb from limb. But she couldn’t, because that would mean leaving her baby for a moment, and at this point, every one counted.

The conversation Remus had with Harry had seemed odd though. Harry needed reprimanded for her disrespect and eavesdropping. Lily’s mother would have certainly never stood for it. She loved the Marauders, but children needed firm boundaries, and the ones Andy had them establish were far too loose.

“You shouldn’t be setting that kind of precedent.” Lily demanded. Remus just sighed and crossed his arms, leaning against the wall a few feet from the door Harry had just entered. 

“And what precedent is that?”

“That Harry can talk to us like that and eavesdrop without punishment!”

“You think she needs to be punished for listening to conversations had openly in her own parlor?”

“If she’s disrespectful about it, yes!”

“Lily…”

“Don’t you Lily me Remus Lupin! She’s my daughter, and she needs discipline!”

“You’re ignoring everything Andy said!”

“What does she know? Harry’s my daughter…”

“Who’s been abused for years, and has a history of near death experiences!” Remus burst back. His face was turning a deep red, and his hands were clenched at his sides. He looked almost angry. But this was Remus, he never got angry.

“Look Lily, I know you want to mother her, but the fact of the matter is, she might as well be an adult. Has been since she was nine and had me arrested. I’ve had the last year to research how to deal with her, and you know what one of the first things Sirius told me was? That you never let an abused kid feel ashamed of themselves. Because the second you do that, you reinforce that the abuse was their fault. And he’s right. The Potters, much as I loved them, did severe damage to Sirius when they insisted he obey seemingly arbitrary boundaries and then punished him for involuntarily crossing them without letting him explain or argue.

“I know you want to be Harry’s mom, but you have to understand that every action she took today is directly related to her instincts. Instincts she’s developed after years of abuse and neglect. She isn’t some little doll that you can remold into the daughter you want; she has emotional scars that may never heal and her own way of coping with those scars. And yes, one of those is eavesdropping! Because for years, if she didn’t monitor conversations or have the elves spying on her supposed caregivers, she could be blindsided by even more abuse!

“I know you want to treat her like a normal kid, but she’s not Lily. She was abused and that’s never going away no matter how much we love her. What we can do, is help her get her life in order, and make it as easy as possible for her. But the second we try to punish her for her defense mechanisms, she’s going to block us out, because as far as she’s concerned, that’s a part of her. So you need to ask yourself Lily, are you going to keep fighting reality and loose your daughter as a consequence, or are you going to recognize the amazing woman she’s becoming, even with her less than honorable tactics. Because at this point, you can’t do both.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posted a day early cause I felt like it and have written quite a bit more. 
> 
> Expected update; July 6th


	22. The Tonkss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short interlude with the guests (babysitters)

“So, how was your day dear?” Andromeda Tonks asked as she tucked her healer robes into the cherry wood dresser. Her husband was by his side of the bed in the Potter’s guest room, removing his shoes.

“Well enough. That Umbridge’s a bitch though.”

“Edward!”

“Alright! Alright! A meany farfenugan pants. There. Happy? Seriously though, I’m worried. It looks like she’s going to be interim MOM, and that’s the last thing we need. She’s ridiculously anti-Harry on this, insisting that the purebloods Harry took out must be innocent, and that this is a plot by the ‘half-blood disgrace of an elf-lover’ to overthrow the Wizengamot by having our ‘most respected citizens’ arrested.”

Andromeda snorted. “Well that’s going to backfire. Most of them were heads of house or heirs. Their families will either seek to cut ties or keep their heads down now, especially with the numerous Ancient and Noble houses that are chomping at the bit for revenge. The Death Eaters that weren’t captured are going to be scrambling to protect themselves from the investigation, not their allies, and all the remaining families are at least blood-tolerant publicly, if not privately. She’s hamstringing her own administration.”

“Maybe on her own that would be the case, but she’s also riling up Scrimonger.”

“The Head Auror? Why is that an issue?”

“Because, he’s notoriously anti-chaos. Not a bad guy, mind, but hates anybody who messes with the status quo.”

“He tried to have Remus arrested…”

“Exactly. He keeps serving me with warrants. Luckily, I can pull the pardon on Lord Ravenclaw for a lot of it, Noble and Enlightened House privileges for the others, and minor’s rights for anything that attacks Harry specifically. I can’t do it forever, or the press will decide we have something to hide, but it’s stemming the tide for now. Which is only pissing him off more.”

“What is the news on the Lordships anyways?”

“Well, it’s an odd sort of thing. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin were all given special privileges after they founded Hogwarts, because the child mortality rates went down so much. They are immune from searches of personal finance and any up close examination of their personal lives as it pertains to the caring of adolescents. Which is ridiculous if you ask me, seems like that would be the easiest way to cover up child abuse, but that’s wizards for you. The actual purpose is to protect students; it kept the Ministry from using Hogwarts financial records to get dirt on the families. Although what dirt they would get…”

“Its all about heirs.”

“Hm?”

“I said, its all about the heirs. Up until a few centuries ago, the rate of adolescent death due to magical accidents was really high. So, houses kept their children cloistered until they reached adulthood. It conferred advantages to do so; it protected the children from one another’s volatile magic, and it kept a house’s true numbers a secret. It also allowed squibs to be disowned quietly, and muggleborns and halfbloods to be blood-adopted into houses in secret to fill out numbers. Sending children to Hogwarts lowered those death rates, by lowering the amount of powerful adolescent magic in the magical homes. Essentially, since those teenagers saw Hogwarts as their home, they weren’t contributing as much magic into the environment with their little siblings. Young witches and wizards still did accidental magic, but they didn’t have the remnants of their elder sibling’s more volatile magic to feed off of, so the accidents went down overall. Eventually, the houses realized how much the death rate went down, and hiding children from each other to keep the magic from feeding back wasn’t necessary, so they could be taken out in public, but it took a few hundred years for the idea that a house’s fertility and magical stability were it’s own business to abate.”

“So, protecting the records kept the numbers a secret?”

“That would be my guess.”

“Does this have anything to do with you insisting we wait a decade before having another kid?”

“Yes, actually. Metamorphmagus’s magic is extremely volatile in the first few years. It’s part of why they are so prized; families didn’t realize for a long time that they caused the child mortality rates to increase, so the trait almost got wiped out. Once people realized, they had to weigh the options; do we allow the couple that already produced one successfully try to have more, and risk the couple and all their offspring getting killed off by accidental magic, or do we make them wait to have another, limiting their reproductive capabilities. Hogwarts eventually solved the problem for most families, but with children like Nymphadora, their magic becomes teenage levels of volatile much sooner. We could have lost her and any other baby, so I didn’t want to risk it.”

“Well, I must say. I was mad at the time, of course, and figured I’d convince you when she was a bit older, but it has been nice only having the one to look after. Especially with her energy. Still, its nice to finally know why.”

“If you had asked, I wouldn’t have understood. I just didn’t realize you didn’t know this sort of thing then.”

Ted reached across the bed to take his fretting wife’s hand. 

“It’s fine. We weren’t exactly ready for this at first. Neither of us knew what to expect. She’s healthy, we’re fine and still together, that’s all that matters.”

Andromeda could feel herself calming at her husband’s words. Those first few years of their marriage had not been pleasant- loosing their first child, that had been conceived at Hogwarts, had torn them deeply. It wasn’t until Nymphadora was five or so that they had really gotten into the rhythm of this whole pureblood/muggleborn marriage thing. Even now, decades later, they found old cracks that still needed healing, old fights that still needed clarification. But they had stayed together. First for their son, then for their honor, then for Nymphadora, then finally for each other. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM APPRECIATED!
> 
> Expected update; July 16th


	23. First Morning Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James adjusts to the new normal.

James ran the towel over his legs a final time before lifting himself out of the shower seat and onto the toilet. He then proceeded to put on undergarments, followed by his slacks. 

His legs had been a point of concern for everyone. Andy had confirmed the results of his initial examination; there was little that could be done. He could still feel somewhat, but it was imprecise. He could tell within a few inches if there was pressure, but couldn’t feel heat or cold with them. He could feel itchy; intensely so, they had to throw out half of the pants the house-elves had brought him because they itched far more than they should. 

From what Andy had shown them, one of his spine’s disks had ruptured, allowing fluid to build pressure against his spinal cord. If it was treated within a few days, they could have drained it, with no ill effects, but instead it took years. Harry, bless her, had mended up his body as best she could before his awakening, including by draining the fluid, but between the fluid being there for so long and the strain of the awakening, his spinal cord was damaged. He could still move his legs a bit, but it was imprecise; his reactions were slow, and it hurt if he tried to put his full weight on them. Andy used anti-atrophy spells to keep the muscles fit, until they could figure out how to best go about rehabbing the nerves, but she wanted him to adjust first. Even with extensive physical therapy they could provide, Andy said it was unlikely he’d ever do anything more than stagger around with a pair of canes. 

Still, he knew better than to dwell. It had been war, and his herd had made it out alive. Well, Peter betrayed them, but best not to think about that. He was sure he’d face that little bit of reality eventually, and that copious amounts of firewisky would be involved, but not yet. Right now, he needed to figure out what Remus did to his girls. 

He rolled out to the hallway and pounded on Sirius’s door, which opened immediately. Many wouldn’t take the Marauder for an early riser, but he was. It was one of the many things that had caused early problems with the Blacks; pureblood lords and ladies didn’t wake until mid-morning, which meant little Sirius had several hours each day with no adult supervision. It hadn’t ended well for the layabouts.

Sirius had his hair cut down to a ridiculously short length, by wizard standards, courtesy of Harry at the hospital. His beard matched his hair’s length, giving him a slightly wild look. It was professional enough for the muggles, and flew in the face of upper wizarding attire. And so very him.

“Prongs? Something up?” he grumbled.

“Yeah, I need downstairs.”

“Oh, right.”

Sirius pulled his wand out of it’s dragonhide holster, attached to his arm per usual, and followed James to the stairs. Sirius actually had five wands prior to his arrest; he kept two on him, one at his apartment, one at Godric’s Hollow, and one in the Mansion. When he was arrested, the primary wand was snapped (because some idiot stepped on it, supposedly an accident) and the secondary logged as evidence. Luckily, he was now a better match for the one at the Mansion than he had been for his secondary, so he had been able to do magic since Harry let him into the Fidelius. 

Ever so carefully, Sirius levitated James down the stairs to the second floor, where they could instantly smell something cooking. Sirius continued escorting his chair-bound friend until they hit the basement, where the kitchen could be found. 

They entered to find Emmy and Parky hard at work, the former making some kind of creamy spread and the latter frying sausage. 

Emmy nodded to the two wizards before Willie popped into the room, immediately moving to the cupboard with the freezing charm on it and getting out a plate covered in wax paper. 

“Crepes! Woo hoo!” Sirius cheered, seeing the pastries Willie was heating on the stove.

“You’ve never made crepes before?” James asked Emmy, who swatted his hand as he tried to steal some of what she was stirring. 

“That’s because Emmy not be making thems. Little Lady does makes them last night for Lord Doggie and Lord Jamie and Lady Lily and Lord Wolfie.”

“She did?” James asked, finger popping out of his mouth. The spread was good, he tasted vanilla and almonds and lemons. 

“Yeah, the alarm went off around three.”

“Alarm?” James turned to his friend, who was getting scolded by Parky for trying to set the island for breakfast. 

“Remus said she was in her lab, and I put an alarm on the door to tell me when she left it. She went back after she made the crepes, so she probably pulled an all-nighter on some project. But she left for a break, so that’s good, and Emmy would get us if something went wrong.”

“She do this often? All nighters?”

“Nah, only when she’s upset or hasn’t had an outlet for a while. Probably trying to work out the cooped-up feeling from the hospital.”

“Yeah, we really should have seen that coming after we talked to Ted.” He looked at Sirius out the corner of his eye. “Look, I know Andy’s telling me to back off, but we both know I can’t. But I saw enough of what you and Remus went through at school to know there are certain ways to approach… someone with those kinds of experiences, and the tactics aren’t the same between people. What’s the best way to, I don’t know, deal with this? I can’t very well tell her everything I do…”

“Honestly, she overreacted. Probably knows it, or she wouldn’t make apology crepes for Remus.”

“These are for Remus?”

“Mainly. Half the stack was chocolate, but she made regular for me, so she specifically wanted him to have some but made them for everyone.”

“And that’s an apology?” 

“Best one you’re going to get. The other option is a verbal apology, which I’m pretty sure she gave Moony last night, but that comes with a lot of tears and angst.”

“So, just accept the crepes and move on?”

“Pretty much. And as far as her knowing what’s going on… we both know this won’t be easy. My childhood was far from decent, and even my parents would be shocked at what happened to her. She’s going to hover and want to know everything for the foreseeable future. That’s fine, that’s how Harry is. As she trusts you more she’ll back off. Try to be patient about it though. Just answer her questions when she asks and ignore it if she gives you the ‘untrusting stare of doom’.”

“Untrusting stare of doom?”

“Yeah. Happens when she gets real spooked. Will stare at you more wide-eyed then a Lovegood on ‘catnip’, follows you around for a few hours. Eventually it’ll wear off, just stay in rooms where she can watch you and ignore her till she’s done. Then she’ll hide for a few hours doing something, either cooking or a project, and then she comes back a bit clingy and apologizes for doing it.”

“You… really have her reactions down pat, huh.”

Sirius shrugged. “Not much else to do. Spent a year in this place with nobody but Remus and nothing to do but recover and look after Harry. And I remember what some of that feels like, being scared that the people you love are going to disappear like smoke. If staring helps her get over it, then I’m going to leave her to it.”

“Wotcher.” Tonks sang, skipping in and taking a heated crepe for herself, filling it with a little bit of every kind of marmalade in reach. Her hair was orange today, going from black at the roots to an obscene yellow at the tips. “How’s my favorite set of mischief makers doin’ today?”

“Morning.” James mumbled. He didn’t hate Tonks, but she was a bit… loud for him. He liked his fiery wife plenty, sure, but part of that was because her shyness had drawn him in. Lily had barely said ten words to anyone for the first month of school, before he put a frog in her goblet. Her anger had been like the brightest firework, pretty in part because it was momentary and would only show up in bursts. 

Tonks was a different story. She was always loud, no breaks between. Of course, Sirius was the same way, but Sirius was a guy, and after being forced to live with him for seven years James had learned to deal with it. And Sirius, being a male, did not remind him so much of his mother. 

Lily said that was the wizarding world’s inborn misogyny rearing it’s head combined with introversion issues due to a lonely adolescence. And he was predisposed to associate an energetic woman with an unhealthy one. Because whenever his mother acted to excitable for to long, she got seizures, which had eventually killed her. 

James wasn’t entirely sure she was right. After all, he put up with Harry bouncing around just fine. He suspected it had more to do with him not liking women who reminded him of his mother before she died, all excitable and with zero breaks. After all, if it was as much of a problem now as Lily claimed, he never would have made it a week in the auror core without the women collectively making his life hell. It probably had been an issue early on in school, as the fact James had needed Remus’s normalcy to balance Sirius the living oxymoron could attest.

And Tonks was a bit closer to his mother’s personality than either of the other women. Euphemia Potter had been an auror before she had to be medically discharged, she was taller than James, prone to clumsiness rather than graceful as his wife and daughter… yeah, Tonks was more like Euphemia than either of the major women in James’s life. Wich made sense; Andy’s mother was a Lancaster, same as James’s mother had been, as well as Alice before she became a Longbottom. So maybe it was just the Lancaster women he was having an issue with? That would actually make more sense than it being a general problem with women, especially considering he never had a problem with Amy or Miranda Moon, and the two were both fairly similar Tonks when he’d first joined the corps… 

James shook off his train of thoughts, trying to focus back in on Tonk’s and Sirius’s bickering, which had somehow resulted in crème on Sirius’s nose that he was trying in vain to lick off while Tonks smirked. Yes, his childhood and history with his mother was probably to blame for his issues with Tonks. And Alice Longbottom for that matter. But he had been trying to overcome that since graduation, and he was not going to let some stupid preconceived notions of femininity stop him from bonding with people. He already overcame it with Harry when she was a baby, and women in the older ranges thanks to Hogwarts teachers, now he just had to get the final young adult age range down and he’d finally be done with that thinking.

“How’s Moody?” he asked Tonks. She began to wax poetic about some sort of incident where a raccoon, teapot, giraffe and mailbox all became unfortunate casualties of Moody’s paranoia, while Sirius winked knowingly. Sirius and Remus both knew about his… problems, they’d been there during several embarrassing incidents of overprotectiveness or minor emotional breakdowns during their first three years at school, including a rather spectacular one that had eventually led to the Great Trophy Room Caper. He giggled a bit at the memory. He wondered if his ‘awards’ had been discovered by Filch yet…

Andromeda and Ted eventually joined, followed by Lily and Remus. He kept his eye on the doorway, eager to see Harry come through, but was disappointed when the elves started clearing and she still didn’t appear. 

“Shouldn’t we leave the food for Harry?” Lily asked as Parky grabbed the sausage tray.

“No Lady Lily, Little Lady bes eating in labby boom boom room hours ago.”

Lily huffed a bit. “Well, she should eat with us in the future.”

“And she will.” Remus said. “At dinner. That’s the rule; dinner is pack time. But when it comes to breakfast and lunch, best to let her come to us. She has enough trouble eating without us all staring her down like we did at the hospital.”

“But…”

“Lily,” Andromeda said in a soothing voice, “Remus just said they have a rule.”

“Harry’s rule, actually.” Sirius muttered around a mouth full of pastry.

“See. Harry will eat with us at dinner, changing the rules on her, especially one she made, will just cause more distance.”

“But, we should at least know where she is!”

“Her lab.” Sirius said.

“And do we know what she’s doing there?”

“Nope.”

“How do we know it’s safe?”

“Because Remus and I insisted she let us ward the room. If anything goes wrong, we’ll know.”

“We should still check.”

“No.”

“But”

“Lily. No. Her lab is her space. She doesn’t mess with my garage or Remus’s study or our bedrooms, and we don’t mess with her in her lab. If we do, she’ll just take her experiments somewhere we cant monitor her at all, and then she could really get hurt. There’s a system in place to keep her safe.”

“She needs space of her own Lils.” James butted in. “I know you want to protect her, but she’s a teenager. Let her have some space.”

“This isn’t just a bedroom or a study though! It’s a lab! Who knows what she’s working on down there! You lot might be fine with leaving a child unsupervised, but I’m taking a look!” Lily yelled, before stomping off to Harry’s project wing of the basement. The others, with the exception of Tonks and Ted, neither of whom wanted to be a part of that drama, followed. 

When James came round the bend (it was really more a renovated dungeon and everyone knew it), he was stopped by the three bodies barring the way in front of him. 

“No! I need to get it upstairs before Dad sees!” Harry was shouting at her mother, along with what sounded suspiciously like foot stomping. 

“Well then!” Sirius said cheerfully redirected while Remus put a hand on Lily’s shoulder. “Lets get this surprise upstairs! Can we at least see what you made?”

“Only when I show him. Not before.”

“You made something for your father? Oh, how sweet! Is the parlor okay for the big reveal?” Andromeda asked while taking the handles of James’s chair and turning it about. 

“C’m on Harry, give me a hint?” Sirius started pestering from behind. 

When the group finally made it to the main parlor, he got his first good look at his daughter. She looked drawn, with big bags under her eyes, but her smile lit up the room. She was levitating a large package wrapped in red and gold paper, with a big green and silver bow on top. James winced for a moment at the color choice, before he realized that was a point. She knew the household’s feelings about Slytherins, present company excluded of course. 

“Open it! Open it! Open it!” Harry giggled, jumping up and down on her toes. How the intense girl from the night before had morphed into this he had no idea, but he’d roll with it. Slowly, James peeled back a strip of paper before looking inside. 

“Okaaaaay, I see a couple of bars and some fabric… is it a chair?”

“No hints. Open it! All the way!”

“Okay…” With a flourish, James ripped away all of the remaining paper, revealing another wheel chair. This one was smaller than his current one, made of metal and thick canvas rather than wood and velvet. The seat was an unassuming chocolate, and the metal supports black, but each arm held an array of gems. Looking closer, he could see several places where runes had been carved…

“Is there something magical about it?” he asked. “I see the runes on the wheels…”

“No telling! Try it!” 

Remus helped him get into position, while Sirius vanished the paper under the new chair. He felt a pulse of magic when he settled in the seat, and the back of the chair immediately adjusted to lean back a tad. 

“Alright. What do I do now?”

“Well, tap the little red gem on the right armrest, the one farthest from you.”

He obeyed his daughter’s instructions, to find a cupholder immediately appeared. 

“Those ones all do that sort of thing. The next one’s for a footrest, and to recline the back, and a head rest, and to lift up the seat so you can be eye level with people. The blue ones.” She pointed to the opposite armrest “change the storage compartments underneath. It’s the box on the bottom of the seat. One compartment has a freezing charm, another a heating charm, and there are two others. The last one’s bottomless. Then the green one on the inside of the left armrest tells you if the chair needs to recharge. It goes white when the magic reserves are depleted half way, and red if you have less than two hours left. It can charge the magic from any building that has wards tied into ley lines, including the Mannor and Hogwarts. But it can’t put out magic and take it in at the same time, so you have to have the active functions off for that to happen. Um… the blue arrows are to go forwards and turn, slide your finger to speed up, and the knob by your left hand, well…. Turn it and see!”

James, who had been experimenting with each function as she listed them, did so with a smile, and felt the wheels leave the floor. 

“You little brat! No wonder you asked so many questions about my motorcycle! How long have you been planning this?” Sirius griped at Harry. 

“A year or so. Once I realized Dad might need it. I’ve been chipping away, adding new features when I had time. I only just got the flight functions working a few nights before everything happened, and it caused an energy cascade that burned out a few of the other functions. It took me all night to finish up.”

“It’s perfect.” James said, floating over to his daughter to offer a hug. She took a deep breath before leaning in, and darted a few feet away almost as quickly.

She hugged him. She actually hugged him.

It was the first time since he had awoken, and James could swear this was the best feeling of all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Yes this is early. The chapter after this is realy fun and I couldnt wait so I decided to bump things up a bit. I'm changing my update formula (again) so that, baring hiatuses, you guys should get a new chapter at least every two weeks. I will continue posting projected update days in the notes. 
> 
> Also, how did this one turn out? I had to rewrite quite a bit of it like five times to get the hints I wanted in without making characters unlikable. I hope I got the balance right...
> 
> As a side note, anyone here read the Marauder's Plan? The author of that has a new series involving dimensional travel and Arthurian legend and it is *great*. Just read the first part recently, kind of fangirling over the whole thing. Maruader's Plan is found at https://archiveofourown.org/series/487526, and A Step To the Right is at https://archiveofourown.org/series/1313258, for those who aren't familiar with Catsarecool's work. 
> 
> Predicted update date; July 28th


	24. Private Drive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just because the government is overwhelmed with the returned doesn't mean private citizens aren't going to step up and take care of the scum themselves.

Vernon Dursley was driving home after an interesting day at work. He had started the day fuming, of course, after what that brat pulled at the train station, despite how long ago it was. Honestly, he goes out of his way to pick the little freak up from her unnatural school, and she cant even be bothered to show up. Well fine, if she didn’t want to come back, he wouldn’t let her.

A few hours of yelling at subordinates at work had helped quite a bit. Oddly, unlike the past few years, the employees didn’t just sit back and take it. Instead, two of them had threatened to call lawyers, and two more quit. It was as if all of the work he had put into yelling them to proper obedience was undone in a single night. Which was fine by him; he’d brought them to heel before, he’d do it again. Being able to yell at his subordinates actually seemed to take the edge off, now that he didn’t have the freak to push around.

However, when he came up to the house, he had to check if he was on the right street. The first thing he noticed was the house’s color. Somebody had covered his house in glitter. Rainbow glitter. Going from the purple roof to the red steps.  
Who the bloody hell did this? And in a day no le… wait. This was impossible. And freaky. And odd. And _unique_. And there was only one person who could be blamed for such unnaturalness.

The next thing he noticed was the lawn. Where once there had been green grass, there was now… sunflowers. Hundreds of them. Which would be bad enough on their own, but from amidst the flowers, he could hear the grating noises of guitars and drums.

Somewhere, in that forest of flowers, someone was playing that infernal rock music!

As he pulled into the driveway, he took note of the flies. A horde of them, thousands dipping and diving like a plague of locusts. And on the ground, having a veritable feast, were an army of toads.

He waded his way through the amphibians and bugs to the door, and reached for the doorknob, only for the bloody thing to fall off the hinges, bugs swarming inside.

The interior of the house was normal, thank God, with the exception of the TV.

WELCOME DURSLEY FAMILY. THE HEIRS OF THE MARAUDERS ARE DISPLEASED WITH YOUR ACTIONS TOWARDS THE BLOOD HEIR. WELCOME. TO. HELL.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> You guys really liked the recommendation last time huh? Well, here's a really meta one for you from outside HP fandom. A few decades ago, a group of friends made a machinimated Halo fanfiction called Red vs Blue, and it became the critically acclaimed, longest running web series of all time. It is irreverent and makes jokes that will insult everybody and everything and now has its own fanfiction community. Which essentially means there is fanfiction about fanfiction. You dont need to know anything about Halo (I dont) to understand RvB, but you need to understand RvB to get Finding Washington, which is a three hundred thousand word fanfic filled with glorious insanity and complex characters. The author just came back from a year long hiatus, and I'm super excited the story isnt dead, so I figured now is a good time to spread the word about it and send the author some support. So, if any of you have a few hundred hours of your lives to waste, I suggest you go ahead and watch, because this fanfic is seeriously underapreciated and worth watching RvB for. You can find RvB at https://roosterteeth.com/series/red-vs-blue and Finding Washington at https://archiveofourown.org/works/10404768/chapters/22975647
> 
> Expect the next update of HEOGB on August 6th.


	25. Diagon Alley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaise Zabini gets icecream and a new friend.

Blaise tried to ignore the chattering of the old ladies his mother was schmoozing with outside the small cosmetics shop by scanning the Alley around him. Diagon was fuller than normal, but not nearly as full as it had been last week. When Hogwarts had been overwhelmed with new arrivals, all parents were asked to take their children home early. Blaise’s mother, who was very close with him and had heard of the chaos surrounding his school, had immediately jumped to get him away from that dumpster fire.

Her weekly visits to the Alley had become every-other-day visits with all the gossip to collect. Several members of rich families had been resurrected. Particularly rich men in her age range. And several of those were unattached. 

Blaise normally enjoyed the visits. A way to get out of the house, maybe pick up a new book or shirt or a bit of his own gossip, but every other day was a bit much for him. Unfortunately, Mother had heard about his illicit potions experiment in a far off corner of the dungeons, and he wasn’t allowed from her side until the end of the month as punishment. 

He scanned the Alley again, looking for anything to distract himself. A large eagle owl down at the owl shop was getting into a screaming match with some kind of pygmy breed. A hag was frightening a few children at the end of Knockturn. A guy in a floating wheelchair was landing in front of the ice cream shop. Two ladies down by the bookshop were arguing about Lockhart and if he’d ever write another book…

Wait a minute. Floating wheelchair?

He focused in on the table, and immediately realized who he was looking at. Professor Lupin was as grey and drab as ever, but he looked almost… happy? The man had never even given a real smile while he was teaching, and had barely been seen in public since he quit Hogwarts. But sure enough, there he was, laughing with a dark haired man… oh Merlin that was Sirius Black. And his old DADA professor. With two people who looked suspiciously like Harry Potter.

Well, it seemed that stunt Potter pulled had done it’s job. Those memories she showed the stands exonerating Sirius Black were clearly enough to get the man a pardon or whatever. And he was still friends with Lupin… interesting.

Slytherin House had all been made aware of Mr. Lupin’s condition within the first month of his original employment. The fact that the tables were no longer set with silver and that he was always sick for the full moon were dead giveaways. There had been quite a lot of discussion about whether he was safe. Some students fell into each section of the opinion spectrum, from we should kill him in class to he’s as harmless as a fly. So, in order to show solidarity, they had unanimously dropped the subject and not mentioned it outside of the house.

Sirius Black had been another source of discussion these past two years. The section of the dorms that bought into pureblood supremacy shit would listen in rapt attention (or amusement, depending on brain capacity) to Draco waxing poetic on the topic of his cousin. Claiming it was the Black blood that allowed one to be so sneaky and conniving to fool the sorting hat.

Boy would Draco feel the ramifications of his actions this upcoming year.

Of course, both of these men, as well as the couple they sat with, were far from the main disruptive force in the current climate. 

No, that title belonged to Potter.

Potter had never been particularly loud. For all her participation on Quidditch and fighting with Draco, (who Blaise suspected might actually have a crush on the witch) she never really interacted with anyone outside her little friend group. Which consisted exclusively of the two most bullheaded students in their year, barring Draco perhaps. 

Oh sure Granger was smart, but she had a serious problem with following the letter of the rules and not the spirit, which Blaise saw as a recipe for disaster. Knowing what the rules are could only take you so far. Understanding the spirit of the rules, now that’s what made a person great in the grand game of Wizarding Politics. Weasely, meanwhile, was as stubborn as a mule and had about that level of intelligence. Blaise had heard he was a wiz at chess, but you wouldn’t know it the way the redhead rushed into things.

And then there was Potter, hiding behind them. Blaise had previously suspected that Potter was either used to standing up to bullies and had a hero complex, or had a crush on Draco that overrode her shyness whenever he was being an idiot (which was constantly). Now, with the reveals about Potter’s history (including the bits where you could see slave runes under the hems of her shirts in some of the memories), the shyness took on a new dynamic. She hadn’t just been shy, Blaise realized, she had been afraid. Probably of Dumbledore, given the tenor of her memories. And that also explained why she fought with Draco so much; it was part of how she’d fooled them all.

Potter knew what was expected of her; a hero complex, not particularly bright, who surrounded herself with the ‘bravest’ (or the ones with the least understanding of consequences) so she had done just that. But behind the scenes, probably for years, she had been planning a major takedown. 

And it wasn’t just Britain that was trembling at it. 

The other European countries were now looking far more closely at Britain. Italy in particular, as well as Austria, each of which had produced major Dark Lords recently and had no interest in encountering another out of Britain, were preparing to intervene. 

When the Minister broke the law, the Chief Warlock was supposed to step in until a new election could be had. If the Chief Warlock was caught in illicit activities, the Minister took the seat until the WIzengamot found a replacement. Nothing had prepared the Ministry for both to be arrested in one night. So, the WIzengamot had an emergency meeting, to name all the resurrected as legally alive, return Lordships when necessary, and elect the Abbott fellow Chief Warlock. But still, it would be years until all the ramifications of the arrests and resurrections were dealt with. 

And all of it centered on Harry Potter.

Rumors abounded about what she was up to now. Some claimed the ritual had killed her. Others that she had absorbed all the Dark Lord’s evil magic to use to make her own inferni army and take over Britain. Still others that she was going to find Excalibur and use the chaos to name herself Queen of Magical Britain.  
Blaise didn’t believe most of it. Afterall, James and Lily Potter were on the lists of the resurrected that got published. So, it was likely that her guardianship was back with them. Having grown up without a father, Blaise knew how much having his father back would mean to him, and knew if he had the chance to get his back, they’d spend every moment together they could.

Of course, there was a small problem with that theory. He leaned around a rainbow-haired girl to look at the table again. Black, Lupin and the Potters were all chatting, but no Harry.

“Um… Blaise? Wow, nice to know you find my parents more interesting.” The girl with the rainbow hair muttered. Blaise took a closer look at her face and started.

It was Potter. Under the rainbow colored braid and zig-zag scaring, it was definitely her. The iconic forehead scar was still there, of course, but it was like someone had replicated the shape up and down her face, from hairline to chin, at least a dozen times. 

Blaise looked to the hand she was holding closer to his face. It held a cone of Demigod’s Delight, a plain vanilla cone in the one closer to the Potter heiress’s chest. The former was his favorite flavor.

“Um… hi Potter.” Blaise eventually stammered, squinting to avoid the neon rainbow blinding him. “Is that… for me or something?”

“Well, yeah.” Potter mumbled, shuffling her feet. “Mr. Fortesque said it’s your favorite. You see, I know I wasn’t really able to talk to the other kids in our year at school, and I had to say some… unkind things about the other houses to make Dumby think I was behaving and obeying his orders and stuff, and I was really mean about you and the other Slytherins behind your backs, and I didn’t want to but I had to make him think I was obeying his orders so I did, and I’ve always felt really, really bad about it and I know we aren’t going to be in the same school anymore for a while at least and you don’t even know the half of what goes on against you or your house and you have no reason to forgive me I still want to apologize and I was going to find a way to kind of do it to everyone but I didn’t want to do the same thing or it wouldn’t really mean anything you know? So we were going to get ice cream and I saw you and figured this was my best chance to do this in person so I got you some and I hope you can forgive me and let my past actions stay there.”

Blaise had to blink several times after the word vomit ended. His mother and her gossip buddy had gone suspiciously silent behind him as soon as he greeted the girl, probably eating up the conversation.

What the hell? Potter was apologizing for… what, being the typical Gryffindor? To him? He didn’t even think she knew his name, nor had he ever heard that many words out of Potter when she wasn’t doing something stupidly heroic. 

And now she was apologizing. To him. For stuff he hadn’t even known about for the most part. 

He hesitantly reached for the icecream, and used the opportunity to get a look at her. She was finally dressed decently, in muggle terms if not wizard, in a nice purple sundress and no overrobe. She had ditched the glasses for once, which made the facial scars stand out even more. Above the neckline of the dress he could make out more scars, looking oddly precise, although he couldn’t see the entire pattern. A few stripes of scar tissue wrapped around her shoulders, looking almost like tiger stripes if you ignored the obvious cause. Her arms were littered with words and small circular scars. He caught a few of the phrases “I am a FREAK” seamed to feature prominently, as well as “magic isn’t real”. Each wrist had a band of runes that he had seen pictures of, but never the real thing. Slave runes. Able to alert the person who applied them any time the wearer broke an order or instruction. Each had a line going around and through them, in a kind of scar tissue that appeared green instead of red. Blaise had heard of those lines-implanting a wellwood poultice under the skin where the runes were was the only way to permanently sever the connection between slave and master. It was supposed to be rather expensive to get the materials, and the wellwood had to be put there during a special ritual, but otherwise a person could undergo the procedure and gain permanent immunity to the runes and their effects.   
Potter seemed to grow concerned when he didn’t respond. 

“Blaise? Is it okay? I got the right kind, right?”

Blaise shook himself. “Yeah, yeah. I was just, uh, surprised is all. You didn’t have to do this.”  
Potter giggled. 

“Well, of course not, but I wanted to. You always seemed so cool, so above the drama everyone else caused. I… I wanted to be like you. For a long time. Friends with people without them expecting me to be anything other than what I am. And you made friends badgers and ravens to, which is really cool. And, well, I’m not going back to Hogwarts for a while, if ever, and I was hoping, maybe, since I’m not really a Gryffindor anymore, we could maybe… try to be friends to? If that’s okay?”

Blaise couldn’t believe it. Harry Potter, who had singlehandedly overturned the entire British Wizarding Government in one night and achieved borderline-worship (no, actually, he was pretty shore a couple of people might actually worship her) from the public after _resurrecting several thousand killing curse victims_ wanted to be his friend. 

His mind immediately went to analyze the politics motivating such a move before he realized it didn’t matter. She was the first person in a millennia to resurrect killing curse victims. The other Slytherins were going to be so jealous. 

“Yeah, Potter, I think we could try to be friends.”

“Really!? I mean, yeah. Cool. Whatever. I’ll… let you get back to your shopping then…” and then she was gone.   
“Well…” Mrs. So-and-Whatever said from next to Blaise’s mother. “I’d better get home…” before immediately toddling off to find someone else to gossip to. 

Blaise saw his mother’s eyes glitter as she stared hungrily at the table Harry had gone back to. Particularly at her dark-haired godfather. 

“Blaise. I think you are done being grounded. In fact, why don’t we send an owl to a few friends. Organize a get together of some kind?” she muttered as she nudged him towards the nearest public floo. 

“Yes.” He said, trying to keep that head of rainbow hair in sight as long as possible without being obvious. “I think that might be a good idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, a little dip back into the thick of things, or at least as close as Harry's going to get at the moment. 
> 
> Recomendations... well, the thing I've been reading right now is the Nightfall series. It's a HTTYD fic, all about a feral Hicccup, and can be found here (https://archiveofourown.org/series/291500). Although, in terms of HP stuff I cannot recommend Dangerverse enough. The entire series is longer than the actual HP books, and is about what would have happened if Hermione had an awesome big sister who kicked Remus out of his funk before Sirius, his girlfriend, Remus, and "Danger" Granger (yes that is her actual name in the fic) decided to adopt Draco and Harry to make a little family of their own. And lets just say that wars with Death Eaters or Umbridge go very differently when Marauders are involved... Find it here; (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2109424/1/Living-with-Danger)
> 
> Expected Update; August 13th.


	26. Bones Bathroom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Susan and Amelia have a talk.

Susan Bones waited until her aunt was the only place Susan knew she’d get her aunt to stop and listen. The toilet.

“Aunt Amy! We need to talk! Its been two weeks and this is overdue!” she shouted, bursting in.

“Susan Amelia…”

“Oh, if you had listened a week ago this wouldn’t be a problem! I just wanted you to know that in addition to all the crimes Dumby committed against Harry, he also committed several against me, including multiple legilimens without consent, obliviates, confundusses, compulsion charms, and even the impirius one time when I tried to run away from the school. Harry helped me get over the spells at the end of last year. Memories of each event are in the house pensive. So, yeah. Can I floo to Harry’s? She just sent round a letter to me and a few other classmates, and I wanna make sure she’s okay.”

Amelia, who at this point had her head in her hands, sighed. 

“No. No visits until we talk about this. Go wait in the parlor, I’ll be down to call aurors in a bit.”

“Okay.” Susan skipped out into the hallway and closed the door. She really wished it hadn’t come to that, but her aunt was getting far to involved in her work. The situation with Susan’s mother didn’t help one bit. 

Oh, Susan loved her mother and was happy she was back, but the woman was clearly still traumatized. Susan supposed watching her father murdered would do that. And Aunt Amy seemed to have forgotten about that entire ball of crazy just sitting on their laps. Which left caring for Susan’s mother to Susan. Who, as a child her mother had last seen when at less than two years old, was an entire other psychological issue for the woman. No, Susan’s mother needed Aunt Amy to be the one stable presence around here. 

It was simple. Aunt Amelia was coping with the national upheaval by burying herself in work. Ergo, Susan had to make herself a part of work. 

Susan smirked as Aunt Amy grumbled to Scrimonger through the floo about sending a few aurors over. She’d really have to thank Harry for the advice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again!
> 
> I know this one was short, but dont worry! the next one is coming on the 15th! And it's a good deal longer!
> 
> Anybody here read the Quiet Ones? It's a realy fun HP fanfic, essentially Harry grew up in Azkaban with Sirius, most of the Death Eaters kind of end up turning sane, if not outright good, and also Harry, Neville, Theodore Nott and an OC become super powerfull awesome but kicking kind-of-superheroes. You can find it here if you're interested: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1057502.


	27. Potter Library

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Full moons require careful planing and negotiation.

“No.” Remus said for the umpteenth time as he made his way to the library, where Lily and James were supposed to be playing catchup to modern events. The two were propped up on the floor, newspapers and books spread between them (along with a smattering of Quibbler articles to appease their daughter, who had an odd fascination with the publication). James was leaning against a red velvet chair, in deference to the man’s balance issues, while Padfoot lounged near his friend’s feet, subtly helping maintain position when it looked like James was about to tip. 

“But Moony” his pack-daughter wined. Her hair, violet and silver, started to curl and puff with her anger as the teen balled her fists in her sweater. 

“Don’t you ‘but Moony’ me. I said no and that’s the end of it.” He could barely resist growling, the moon being so close and his temper increasing with the satellite’s apparent size. 

“You’re letting Dad come! Besides, we both know that Padfoot alone isn’t enough to keep Moony from civilians if he gets particularly antsy. And Dad can’t help with that anymore, he’s not fast enough. Although actually, if I make some leg braces…”

Harry seemed to trail off, almost walking into the library’s doorframe as she thought, finger tracing the lies where her chest scaring went anxiously. Realizing she had been lost in thought, the girl shook herself like Padfoot after a rainstorm before pointing a blue-stained finger (did he even want to know what she was up to in the lab?) at the werewolf. 

“Yeah, that might work, but that’s a project that’ll take me months. And in the meantime, you need another animagus to help. Face it. This isn’t just about bonding time, this is about safety.”

“Are you going to help!” Remus shouted, exasperated to the girl’s actual parents and primary legal guardian. 

“Moony…” James sighed.

“It’s not that we don’t want her safe, we do.” Sirius explained, having shifted while Remus’s back was turned. Remus glared. “It’s just, well. We want you safe to. And if she can help, we could use it.”

“Wait, you two are actually considering this!” Lily shrieked. “She’s a kid!”

“Oh please.” Harry groaned from the chair she’d sprawled across. “He’s going to be on wolfsbane. I’m going to be in animagus form. Either one of those would make me more than safe enough to join in the fun. Plus the area’s already warded so he cant get out, just in case.”

“No.”

“Oh, she’s right and you both know it!” James finally burst out “Look, as much as I don’t want my daughter gallivanting around with an infectious werewolf…”

“Not for long! I’m just a few months away from a treatment that’ll make them non-infectious I promise!”

“You said that last year!” Sirius shot at the girl. She growled and flung a pillow at her godfather before flipping so she was upside down in the chair.

“… she’s right. It wasn’t just that Moony had company that kept everyone safe, it was that he had a pack present, and one dog animagus does not a pack make.”

“But James, she could get hurt!”

Harry snorted from the chair, where she had now migrated to hanging upside down. “Not likely.”

“And how could you know that!” Lily screeched. 

Uh oh. Harry was getting her ‘screw you I’m going to do what I want anyways and I’ll sick the elves on you if I have to to get what I want’ face on. Remus knew they were definitely not winning this now. If they tried to stop her, she’d just wait to sneak out on her own. 

“Okay, fine.” Remus muttered. “I’ll let you come out to the forest tonight…”

“YES!”

“REMUS DON’T YOU DARE!”

“…IF your form is larger than Moony.” The entire room held it’s breath. A werewolf was not a regular wolf afterall; they normally had fifty pounds or so on the non-magical canines that gave them their name. While there were many species that grew bigger, any deer form like her parents would not qualify.

Harry just smirked. “Well then, let’s go outside and I’ll show you!”

“Remus, you cant be going along with this!”

“Why do we need to go outside?” James muttered as he levered himself off the floor and into his new chair. 

Harry just gave a shit-eating grin. “Oh, you’ll see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone mentioned they thought Harry was to OP. And I see their point, but given what I'm setting as the initial cause of the divergence from cannon, from which all other changes originate (which will get explained later I promise!), I don't see any of her abilities not making sense. Oh well. In the end, this is mostly just a tool for my own catharsis/wish fulfillment, so... 
> 
> Any guesses on her animagus form? Not that I'll tell you if you're right, but I'd still like to see where people's heads are at. I've seen people make Harry anything from a dragon to a mongoose to a rino to a wolf, but I've never seen the animal I chose for this story used. Happy guessing!
> 
> Any Descendants fans here? I liked the concept in the first movie, but thought Disney played it way to safe. I'm actually kind of sad that there is so little fanfic about it to scratch my itch. If any of you have recommendations, please send. 
> 
> Expect the next update August 17th.


	28. Morning After the Moon

“I don’t believe it. Of all the forms…” Sirius muttered at the table, while he and the rest of the full moon brigade were having their late lunch/early dinner.

“Yeah, that came out of nowhere. Any idea what it means?” James mumbled from the other side. 

Moony, who after a long sleep was looking only slightly paler than usual, looked up from his chocolate waffles to consider the question before swallowing and drinking a spot of tea to clear his throat. 

“Well, she’s a social animal. Which makes sense, given her feelings about pack. They are also known for their intelligence and memory.”

“The rest of us are native to Europe…” James trailed off. 

Remus nodded. “Yes, but she was right about one thing. Moony couldn’t hurt her if he tried-not enough to do anything permanent anyways.”

“We are going to have to find somewhere more open though. She’s slow enough without trees in the way.” Sirius pointed out.

A few moments of silence passed, each man contemplating their youngest member’s form.

“Bigger question, why didn’t you know what her form was before now?” James asked the room at large. Remus snorted at the unintentional pun. 

“No idea. She mentioned she wanted to be one but didn’t…”Sirius trailed off as he heard a patter of feet down the hall. 

Harry burst in, some odd kind of goggles making her eyes look bigger than Trelawney’s, some light singing around the edges of her navy blue and bright white striped hair.

“I only finished two months before the task. Wanted a backup to help in the fight. I knew not to bother for the full moons before that; you guys wouldn’t have let me and you were staying inside so my form would have been more of a hinderance then a help.”

“Okay, that’s the third time you’ve come into the middle of a conversation you weren’t a part of. Do you have the house bugged?” James exclaimed.

“Nope. Don’t need to. Look over there.” Harry pointed a finger, stained with some green goop Sirius did not want to know about, towards the stove where Emmy was diligently puttering away. 

“She has you spying on us?” James asked the blue-eyed elf as she toddled about making some kind of batter. Harry had conspicuously disappeared after the redirection, he noted. 

“No, Is just tells Elvana when her pack bes talking about her. Shes uses the elfy bond to listen from us so shes knows whats going on. She does the same with Hogwartsy elves and people shes wants to protect. It bes how she knows that other students bes tampered with by Meanie Headys Dumbles.”

“So, you’re a bloody spy network.” Sirius summed up. 

Emmy just nodded. “Like Bondsy in the movies! Although wes not fall in love with the peoples we protect or fight. Wes just protect the family.”

The wizards all looked at each other for several moments, before Sirius shot up and called for Kreacher. 

“Did you ever spy on people for Aunt Cassie?” he asked the shivering elf. 

“Yes, what else does stupid filthy blood-traitor…”

“No!” a voice yelled, as the kitchen was filled with elves screeching and wailing. It took several minutes for the men to evacuate the room, only to find Harry running down the hall. 

“What did YOU DO!” she roared at Sirius. 

“Me? Who said it was my fault.” Harry glared. “I just called Kreacher to ask a question!”

“Never do it again! It took me weeks to sort out the bonds after the last time! Kreacher stays at Grimmauld where the others wont bother him! End of story. YOU LOT. WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT FIGHTING WITH KREACHER!” 

The entire kitchen went silent. 

Each elf settled down to statue mode while Harry glared for several minutes. Finally, with a great POP! The entire room was clear once more. 

“Un-fucking-believable. I leave for two minutes and suddenly Elf War Three breaks out. Stupid mutt cant keep his fucking elf to himself…” the girl muttered, sending an acerbic glare before moving to her lab and loudly slamming the door. As soon as she was gone ,Emmy and Parky popped in and started cleaning the room, both a more vivid green that suggested they were blushing. 

“Anybody know what just happened?” James asked the hall at large. 

“I’m nowhere near drunk enough for this kind of madness.” Sirius muttered, moving to his garage. “Prongs, get over here! I wanna adjust your chair! It was way to difficult to maneuver out of that room! Last thing I want is you slow when we need to move through congestion.”

“Padfoot, you break my masterpiece and so help me I will have you neutered!” threatened the teen, once more popping her head into the hall and the adult’s conversation and then slaming the door once again.

Each man looked to the others before turning to look at their surroundings, only to see one Smithy quietly dusting the corners between walls and ceiling. Quickly, the unnerved party made their way to the thankfully elf-free garage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congrats to everyone who guessed how Harry gets her dirt on people.
> 
> Any new guesses on the form? Currently the most popular guesses from the comments are Griffin, Dragon and Elephant. 
> 
> Expect next update on the 21st


	29. Family Dinner (Hiatus Notice)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some mail owls should realy be retired.

A mass of feathers landed in the salad, spraying olives, cucumbers and lettuce all over the dining room.

Several not-particularly-polite exclamations later, Tonks brandished her wand and gestured decisively at the offending avian. 

The family were in the dining room, at the mandatory family dinner. James took up the head of the table, as was proper for the lord of the manor, with his daughter (hair black with pink tips) on his right and wife on his left. Next to Lily were Andy and Ted, as the highest ranking (if long-term) guests, with Tonks next to Harry and Sirius coming next, and Remus rounded out the other end.

Tonks thought all that was posturing, and Harry had vocally agreed, but Tonks’s mother was insistent that Harry learn proper decorum. Her mother did, the auror acknowledged, have a point. Harry could barely use a fork when Tonks first moved in, and needed some serious help in the manners department. And when the Hufflepuff girl known for getting caught alone with Charlie Weasley multiple times during her formative years, ticking off Mad-Eye Moody, giving McGonagall at least three gray streaks, and personally sticking a playing card to the Fudge’s hat before changing the bowler to a tophat, said someone needed manners, one knew it was bad.

Just as Tonks came to the conclusion the bird was dead, it burst up with another explosion of greens… only to promptly get stuck on the chandelier. Luckily, the group was in the family dining room, so the lighting fixture was within easy reach.

“Oh hell.” A voice next to Tonks muttered. She looked to her fellow metamorphmagus with a raised brow, only to be met with a most amusing look of consternation, somewhere between constipation and wry disappointment. 

“It’s Errol.” Harry muttered.

Ah. Now Tonks could see it. Charlie had gotten his own owl when he graduated, so she hadn’t seen the bird in five years (gosh it’d been five years since graduation she’d gotten so old when had that happened?) He was definitely worn down; half his feathers seemed to be pointing the wrong way, and when she sat him on the table, he hunched over like a decrepit old man.

“And he is here now because…” James asked around the dinner in his mouth and ignoring his wife’s swat. Tonks liked James, he was funny and good for Sirius, although he didn’t seem to like her. Sirius said it had to do with being reminded of his mother, which Tonks didn’t know to be an insult or compliment, but whatever. She got Moody to like her; she’d break her new housemate in.

“Because the Weasleys won’t leave me alone.” Harry grumbled. Remus and Tonks’s mother seemed to share a bit of a silent conversation at that.

“You are friends with them? I do recall they had a son in your year…”

Harry sniffed, and her hair started to pouf in it’s braid. “No, but we used to be. Mrs. Weasley likes to baby me. “

“Well, its very kind of her to look out for you.”

“There’s looking out for someone, and then there’s smothering. I overheard her talking to Dumbledore summer after second year. He told her he’d sign a marriage contract between me and Ron. And the way I met them was way to contrived; the entire family’s loyalists. They set all this up for Dumbledore, even covered up” Harry seemed to gulp, and switched from mounting anger to the calm, blank mask Tonks’d noticed she sometimes wore, particularly when talking about her past. “what happened to me at the Dursley’s. And Ron was always monitoring who I spent time with and keeping other people away. He might not have known all of the plans going on around him, but that letter’s probably something his mother helped him contrive. And her, I don’t trust.”

The healer frowned a bit. “Honey, everyone knows Dumbledore wasn’t a good person. I agree, if she is that toxic, you should stay away from her. You won’t know who she’s siding with until you read the letter. Is this the first one they’ve sent you?”

Harry tensed up in her seat.

“Harry…” Remus joined in from his end of the table, “how many people are you ignoring right now?”

Harry started to sink down.

“You know some of those could have business info.” Sirius mentioned. “You need to answer mail quickly.”

“Yeah, I have a couple of elves sorting through it. There’s a lot of thankyou cards and gifts and stuff. It’s just…”

The teenager put her head in her hands, elbows on the table, almost drawing a reprimand from Tonks’s mum. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to talk to them now. The person who became their friend… that was never me. And I’ve been manipulated enough, but I manipulated them as a shield for my own behavior, and I can’t…”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Lily said, coming around the table to lay a hand on her daughter’s back.

“You did what you had to to survive. Nobody worth knowing is going to blame you for that.” Tonks’s Mum agreed. 

Tonks was with her mum on that. She and the other aurors had to all take shifts on sorting through the evidence, particularly the abuse evidence. And there was a LOT that fell into that category. Kid had enough to deal with after all that without worrying over stupid teenage drama. 

“But…”

“Harry…” Remus scolded lightly. “If they think you’re ignoring them, how will that help? You need to at least reply so they stop nagging you. It’s been over two weeks!”

“Yeah, but…”

“Harry.” Andromeda spoke up, reaching a hand forwards. Tonks had seen her mum and cousin and Lupin do this a hundred times by now, getting just close enough to keep the teenager’s attention without spooking her. “It’s your mail. And we cant make you do anything with it. But, you said it yourself. They were your shield. Do you want them to give you space? We can send a letter for you, explaining that you cant answer right now…”

“No.” Harry said. “I cant have you fixing my problems.”

“So…what are you going to do then?” Sirius asked.

Harry took a long, deep breath, and her hair deflated. “I guess, I have some reading to do tonight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Hiatus. It will only be about two weeks methinks (so until the fourth). Life is happening, (nothing bad, just changes) and update schedules might end up changing. We'll see after I have the aforementioned time to work things out.


	30. Correspondence

Harry,

What the bloody hell was that? You just go and disappear and come back and take out Voldemort in one night? Why didn’t you ask for help! I would have given it in a heartbeat!

Seriously though, those spells were awesome! Mum is real happy to have Uncle Fabian back, even if Uncle Gideon’s still gone. Mum and Aunt Muriel got in a huge fight over where Uncle F’s going to stay, and Mum won, so now we have him living with us to. Dad’s all happy because his big brother Simon’s back. Of course, he’s dad’s little brother now, but who cares. With two extra adults in the Burrow, we’re about ready to explode. 

Mum’s about ready to kidnap you and wrap you in wards so thick air wont get through. The night we got back, she sobbed her eyes out because she didn’t realize what was going on.

And I guess we all have to apologize about that. After what those memories showed, I realized all the stuff that could’ve warned me about who was really on our side. And especially with how I treated you after you became a champion… yeah, not one of my finer moments. I know I said it after the first task, but I’m really sorry that we fought over it. 

By the way, Dad says if you and your parents need anything, to come to us. Books, advice, Mum’s cooking… we owe you a debt of honor, and any way we can help, we will. 

Speaking of parents, I hope things go well with yours. I know you were always saying how much you missed them and stuff, so I hope they’re what you wanted. I also heard about Sirius getting that pardon, good on him! Hope he’s feeling better after everything last year. I bet he’s real happy to have your parents back to. 

Well, I hope you’re doing alright. But hey, if we cant see each other over summer, we’ll at least be back together at Hogwarts, right?

See you next year!  
-Ron

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry,

What in the world were you thinking! Going off and risking yourself like that! You should have told an adult what was going on! Really, I know you’ve had a lot of bad experiences with untrustworthy people, but you should have kept trying! And performing an ancient forgotten ritual without proper supervision! We are far too young for that! You should have come to me for help, so I could have told you all the laws you broke, and we could find someone…

…

…

Well, regardless, I have a summer study schedule written up for you and attached. Please write back so we can set up some time to study together.  
-Hermione

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry Potter, Heiress to several Houses, etc.

So, first off, I have to say, thank you. The wizarding world already owed you for everything when you were a baby, and now, we owe you so much more than that. So thank you.

I remember when we were in third year, and you mentioned how “having people choose for you is the worst kind of prison”. At the time, I thought you were making fun of me cause I wasn’t brave enough to stand up for myself but now…

Now, it seams more like you understood. More than I thought anybody could. So, thank you. I hope that, even though what I’ve gone through and what you have don’t even compare, we can maybe get to know each other better? And if you need anything, I can help?

Gran looked over the memories you played, and between them and her contacts, she’s on your side all the way. She says any aid the House of Longbottom can give Houses Potter, Peverell, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and even Black and Slytherin, she is ready to provide.

She also says it’s likely nobody told you we’re godsiblings. I thought you knew and just didn’t want to talk to me, but, with how Dumbledore hid stuff from you… well, yeah. 

So, I don’t want to take you away from your parents or anything. I know if I got mine back, I’d be spending every moment with them I could. But, if you ever want to talk, I’m here to listen.

So good luck with your family, and I hope to see you at Hogwarts next semester.

Sincerely,

Nevile Longbottom  
Heir Longbottom

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry,

I’m sorry it took so long to write this. My dad wanted me to get healed up and checked out before he’d let me write to you. 

It doesn’t help that I honestly don’t know what to say. Dad’s angry because you took me into danger, and because of what could have happened. But then I look at everything you went through to get there, and how you took measures to keep me safe, and I cant get mad. Not when you saved so many.

So, thank you. The fact is, if you hadn’t gotten between me and the cup, I would have been used in that ritual, and I doubt I would have survived. So thank you for that.

I have the winnings from the Tournament. I was told, by the little house elf that brought them to me, that you didn’t consider yourself a real competitor. But you did the best on the tasks. You went out of your way to help the rest of us. And you were only involved in the first place to protect others. You deserve this far more than I ever did. But, I get the sense that you don’t want the winnings, which is fine. Instead, I’m going to find a charity to donate it to. Any input on which one?

Anyways, I hope you’re healing well. And that you and your family are recovering. Dad mentioned a rumor that you, your godfather, parents, and Professor Lupin are all going to be around each other. Professor Lupin was one of my favorites, I hope he’s doing well. Please pass on my well wishes. 

Well, get back to me when you can, and if you ever need anything, I’m here. 

Sincerely, your friend,   
Cedric Diggory

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry,  
Hey, what’s going on? You havnt responded to my letter yet! Dad says you’re in the hospital for a little while, so maybe you havn’t gotten these yet, but please write me as soon as you do. I’m worried about you.   
Ginny’s really upset. Aurors and child services came to the house yesterday. Apparently, Dumbledore told me he’d explain the diary to Mum, but he never did. They found compulsion spells on both of us, to keep it a secret. The child services worker said that we have to take Ginny to a mind healer, and they’re going to be doing random home checks for the next six months. If Mum and Dad break any rules, they’re going to send me and the others to foster care. I’m really mad at them, why do they get to be involved in my family? But then I remember what happened to Ginny… and yeah, if I found out somebody let that happen to a kid and didn’t even take them to a healer, I’d be pretty mad to. Still, people at work are giving Dad a hard time now, and he had to pack up his shed, wich is sad.   
On the bright side, finding out what was done to Ginny finally convinced Mum that Dumbledore wasn’t Merlin incarnate. She didn’t believe it at first, and was in a right state, but Dad told her everything that was going around the Ministry, about all the evidence they found… she didn’t believe him to much, but she stopped yelling at us constantly, wich was good.  
The twins are acting real weird. When they found out who the Marauders are from the memories, they got real excited, but then they got real sad. They’re hiding in their rooms, but I cant hear any explosions. I’m starting to worry, they havnt even pranked me once.  
Percy got kicked out of the house. That Umbing lady promoted him to Junior Undersecretary to the Minister, and he wouldn’t stop ranting about how the Minister should be respected and how you just want to cause chaos. I told him he’s barmy, and when Percy started to yell at me about how you’re corrupting me and I’m a traitor to my country, Dad decked him. It was really cool, to see Perfect Prefect Percy finally get told what’s what, but now he’s gone and Mum’s sad and Dad’s getting even more trouble at work because Mum’s howler went off in the Minister’s office…  
The point is, things aren’t going to well here, and I could really use a friend. I don’t want to take you from your parents, but I miss seeing you and Hermione every day. Dealing with evil Death Eater plots is a lot easier when we’re together.  
But, Hermione said something in one of her letters to me, about how every aspect of your life was controlled by Dumbledore and Voldemort, and that made me wonder. Before first year, Mum said all sorts of stuff about how we had to look out for you and guide you in the wizarding world, and I’m starting to think, with everything Dumbledore did to my sister and youo, that he might have set us up. And then I thought about all the pretending you had to do (like how you intentionally lowered your grades, don’t think I didn’t notice all that re-writing) and I realized we might have been pretend friends to cover for you. And if that’s true, I get it. I think about what my life would have been like if I was forced to be friends with Malfoy and my family would get hurt if I didn’t, and if that’s what this was like for you, then I would never want to do that to you.  
Cause, one of the compulsion spells they found, was one to be your friend. And another was to keep you from reading or doing school work. So, I don’t know how much of our friendship was real either. But we still spent three years together, even if we didn’t get along to well the last one, and I really want to know if you’re okay.   
So yeah. We don’t have to be friends if you don’t want to, but if you do, I’m here.   
II hope you’re okay and can write soon.  
-Ron

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry,

Why won’t you write back! Honestly, it’s been a week! Is someone keeping your mail from you! If so, that’s illegal and…

And who are you with right now? I went to the Dursley’s house, and there was glitter everywhere. Did you do that? Honestly, I understand you want retribution, but such things should be left to the authorities…

And now all this nonsense about returning people from the dead has hit the muggle world! Insane, that’s what this is. You should have let the authorities cast the ritual; this is just proof that we should not…

Write soon,  
Hermione

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To the Lady Harriet Potter, Heiress Slytherin, Heiress Ravenclaw, Heiress Hufflepuff, Heiress Gryffindor, Heiress Black, Heiress Potter, Heiress Gaunt,

I apologize for the breach in protocol this letter represents, however, I felt it necessary given the circumstances, and the appropriate response given we already know each other.

First off, I would like to offer you the thanks of myself and my House for the great service you did us in returning my Great-Grandfather Septimus to us. As you know, Grandfather Septimus is the Lord Malfoy, and appreciates your efforts to return him to his rightful place as head of house. To show I am truly grateful for this boon, any aid you or yours should require, it would be my pleasure to give, if possible.

It may please you to know that Abraxius Malfoy has been formally disowned, and Lucius Malfoy is awaiting judgement of the family magics for his crimes. The former heir, Lucius, has been removed from the line of Lordship, and I have been instated in his place. You and I are now to be pears of the realm together, an assertion I have not always treated with the proper respect. 

On the subject of our past interactions, I can offer nothing but my most heartfelt apologies. My only excuse is that I was a child, duped by the glamour of parents who were less than deserving of my admiration. In seeking to emulate their despicable behavior, I caused an ongoing grudge between our Houses, one that still lingers and threatens the peace between our families. I caused physical harm to those you cared for, attempted to set you up for punishment you did not earn, organized concentrated and premeditated champions of character degradation against you, insulted your parents and family, who are all heroes and deserve my respect, and generally offered you a closed fist rather than the open hand befitting individuals of our position. 

It has also come to my attention that we are cousins, something of which I was unaware previously. I should have treated a relative, however distant, with the respect due to family, and yet failed to offer aid that was clearly needed. For this as well I apologize. 

Should you have any need in these interesting times, House Malfoy is at your disposal.

Sincerely,

Draco Malfoy,  
Heir Malfoy

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry,   
I’m not even sure if you’re getting these letters. Dad said you’re out of the hospital, but you still havnt written back.   
Look, if dealing with me hurts to much, after everything, then I get that. But could you at least let me know if you want to be friends or not? I’m not sure if I should be worried or not that you havnt responded.  
Please write soon, even if it’s only to tell me to piss off.  
-Ron

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Miss Harry Potter,

My husband and I would like to apologize for Hermione’s behavior. She only recently confided in us the events of this school year, and we only just realized how she was acting towards you.

Let us tell you, our daughter’s feelings are far from the truth. You are not to blame for anything that happened, and nobody should make you feel so. 

While we are unsure if you will continue the connection with Hermione, we do ask that you not judge her to harshly. Hermione has an amazing mind, but once it gets an idea, such as the infallibility of authority, she has difficulty letting it go. Her actions were never intended to cause you harm, she truly believed she was acting in your best interests. 

We hope you have a pleasant summer,  
-Emma Granger, DMD

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To the Lady Harriet Potter, Heiress Slytherin, Heiress Ravenclaw, Heiress Hufflepuff, Heiress Gryffindor, Heiress Black, Heiress Potter, Heiress Gaunt,  
I would like to invite you to a pool party, to be held on August 8th. Refreshments will be provided, casual swimwear encouraged. Parents and guardians are welcome.   
Sincerely,  
Blaise Zabbini,  
Erede di Famiglia Zabbini

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry,

We’re sorry these letters are getting to you so late. Stuff’s been crazy, and we haven’t had much chance to pass them around. 

So, with everything that went down at the third task, a bunch of us finally got our heads out of our buts and realized what was going on. Padma and Parvati’s parents had the idea to take them to a healer, and they found multiple compulsion charms on the twins. A bunch of us heard and got ourselves checked out, and found the same sort of stuff. 

But, we know that doesn’t excuse what happened. You were being hurt by the adult caring for you, and we only made that worse, and all we can say is we’re sorry. 

Hannah Abbott said there’s a rumor that you wont come back to Hogwarts, and that’s fine. We honestly cant blame you for that. But, if you do decide to return, know that you’ll have a place all ready in Gryffindor Tower, if we have to go around the house elves to set up our dorm ourselves. Or, if you don’t want to come back to Gryffindor, Susan from Hufflepuff, Tracy from Slytherin and Su from Ravenclaw all said they’d make room for you.

We know you just got your parents and godfather back, and we’re all really happy for you. So take your time to be with them, and if you ever need a friend, know that you have all of us behind you.

We hope that these packages we put together can help you have a fun summer.

-Lavender Brown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Hope you're all doing well!
> 
> So, update schedule. I'll be updating every two weeks, starting next Saturday. however, if there are especially short chapters, I'll post multiple at a time. Then, once I hit a break point with my GoT story, that will go on hiatus and HPATHEOGB (wow thats unwieldy) will come out every week until I have the next chunk of LJRTBAMHFI (that one isnt much better) written, and then this story will go back to every other week. So see you guys in a week and a half!


	31. Replies

Ron,

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Life’s been… hard… lately.

I’m fine. Staying with Moony and Padfoot and the ‘rents. They’re…nice. Its just. I don’t. 

How do you deal with the hovering when you get back to school? Moony’s good about it, but everyone else is… decidedly not. Dad cant follow me everywhere, so at least he’s being limited about it, and Padfoot does most of his moping as Padfoot, so that’s nice. But I’ve had to lock myself in the no parents area for the last week and I just… I don’t know how to do this. They all want to take care of me and stuff and… I just cant do it.

Don’t worry about us being friends. Stuff happened that you couldn’t control, and its not your fault. I’m just… not sure how the real us will go. I am very much not the girl you became friends with, there was a lot I had to keep hidden. I’m honestly more worried about how you’ll feel about the real me than the other way around. And I don’t think I can handle that right now. So, thanks for offering, but I’m going to have to sort out stuff here before I try to deal with the rest of the world. That’s not a rejection of your friendship or anything, just that I need some time before we try and figure out where we stand.

I’m sorry to hear about all the fighting. I hope that you and your family work things out. Maybe, towards the end of summer or something, we can get together and talk? And until then, letters?

About Hogwarts… I’m not going back, at least any time soon. Andy says it would be bad for me which I definitely disagree with, but Mum put her foot down and I don’t have the energy to fight her on it. If I have my way I’ll be around as much as I can, but I wont actually be attending the school. The thing is, there’s a bunch of stuff that happened to me that kicked my brain into high gear, and I’m going to be taking OWLs this summer if they let me. So even if I was coming back, we wouldn’t share classes. I’m sorry about that, but it’s just the way things are going to have to be. 

Good luck at home, and I hope your Uncles are doing well. See you around,

Your friend,  
Harry

\-------------------------------------------

Drs. Granger,

Thank you for your letter. You don’t need to worry, I know Hermione’s attitude comes from a decent place. She cares very much about the people around her, especially when they are risking trouble. Your kind words and concern have been very uplifting since I got your letter.

I hope you also have an enjoyable summer

Sincerely,  
Harriet Potter  
Titania Elvana  
Heiress and Champion of Gryffindor  
Heiress Slytherin  
Heiress Potter  
Heiress Peverell  
Heiress Gaunt  
Heiress Hufflepuff  
Heiress Ravenclaw  
Heiress Black

\--------------------------------------------

To Neville Longbottom, Heir Longbottom,

Hi Nev.

Sorry it took so long to write back. Things have been chaotic.

No, I didn’t know we are godsiblings, nobody ever mentioned it. I only just asked Mum yesterday, and she explained. I’m sorry that you thought I didn’t want to be your friend. I tried quite a bit in first year, but Dumbass put up compulsions on you that warned me off, so I had to back down. 

Thank your Gran for her offer of aid. To my understanding, the Houses Potter and Longbottom have always been stalwart, dependable allies, and I am grateful that she intends to continue that trend. 

And Hogwarts… just isn’t happening for me. Between a bunch of political/personal reasons, I’m probably never coming back as a student. Which is sad, because I’d really like the chance to get to know you better, but there’s nothing saying we cant do that over the summer? Just let me get some of the rigamarole out of the way first, and maybe we can meet up in Diagon Alley or something.

And Neville, never forget that YOU are the Heir Longbottom. No matter who tries to say you aren’t worthy, they are wrong. Nobody said that about either of your parents, so how can it be true of the boy who is the combination of them both? I know you havn’t been told it enough, but you are worth it, you are amazing, you have your own skills and things to contribute to the world. If other people can’t or won’t see it, that’s their problem

I hope we can talk for real soon

Love, your godsister,

Harriet Potter  
Titania Elvana  
Heiress and Champion of Gryffindor  
Heiress Slytherin  
Heiress Potter  
Heiress Peverell  
Heiress Gaunt  
Heiress Hufflepuff  
Heiress Ravenclaw  
Heiress Black

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cedric,

I’ve had to restart this letter about half a dozen times, so sorry it’s still going to be a bit scattered.

First of all, thank you for the Badger plushie you sent me when you were eight. It’s adorable. I’ve named him Bertrand, he sits on a shelf in my room. I only found out about the mail Dumbledore hid from me two years ago, and I’ve been working my way through it, but Bertrand was actually the first plushie I found in the pile. Which also kind of makes him the first plushie I’ve had since Halloween ’81. So, yeah, thanks. Go Hufflepuff! (part of me really wished I got sorted there…)

I told Uncle Remus you said hi. He says good luck in final year, and remember to keep your left arm up when you duel. 

No, I don’t want the winnings. That money is yours, fair and square. But, if you insist on spending it on a charity, I have a few to suggest.

The Integration Foundation does great work helping muggle parents of witches and wizards adapt to our culture. They mostly work with kids that go to the public magic programs and their families, since most purebloods go to Hogwarts or get homeschooled. Unlike Muggleborn or Halfblood students who get accepted to Hogwarts, the kids in the public schools find out about magic as early as age five. The foundation organizes trips to magical locations, sets up a mentorship program, and has a focus on helping kids who come in from the muggle world keep the good parts of their culture to be absorbed by wizards at large. The only downside is, because Dumbledore messed with the Hogwarts acceptance system, they cant help anyone who Hogwarts has called dibs on.

Orphans of Europa is another cool group. They focus on getting magical orphans in countries with too many over to countries who’s populations need new blood. They are essentially an adoption agency that finds kids in areas where there aren’t enough families willing to adopt and takes them to places where they can be adopted. 

Then there’s The Sisterhood for the Furtherance of Noble Lines. I’ll warn you now, they’re filled with pureblood elitists, but they are also a society dedicated to maintaining the family trees of every country with a magical population. And, despite the elitist majority, they have a specific minority that has some very interesting records regarding muggleborns and their ancestors. That research is preliminary right now, but if it ends the way many suspect it will… well, life is going to get interesting. 

Of course, there is always the ICOMC, wich I’m sure your dad has worked with. Most of their work preserving magical creatures is community funded, and there are always far more species at risk than there are funds to protect them. 

The Werewolf Alliance of Europe is probably the one with the worst rep. Greyback took advantage of their programs to commit his atrocities, and by the time they realized what he was up to, they were already knee deep in fines. They’re still digging their way out of the debt pile heaped on them, but before the werewolf uprisings of the ‘60s, they had a bunch of programs running, including half-way houses for the newly turned or werewolves between jobs, support groups, and ran the pack runs. Anti-werewolf extremists have tried to get knowledge of this erased, but the Alliance is actually the group that researched the transformation and figured out a bunch of the old containment methods. There is one they call the pack run, which essentially involves warding an area of forest and then turning the werewolves loose. It lets the wolves get their energy out in a way that doesn’t involve self harm, and simultaneously keeps them away from people. Of all the methods for treating lycanthropy, including wolfsbane potion, pack runs are the most effective way to treat lycanthropy. Unfortunately, a bunch of groups across Europe in the fifties placed restrictions on the practice, which arguably caused Greyback in the first place. 

And, if you want to get really creative, there are a bunch of muggle charities. The Red Cross focusses on medical relief for distressed regions. Habitat for Humanity International helps increase the living conditions of people in distressed regions. Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, the Salvation Army. There are a lot of ways you could help the muggle world to.

I hope I listed something you like? I know your dad is a big creatures guy, but I never found out if that extended to you.

Anyways, I’m glad you are doing well. I really wish things could have gone differently that night, but if I had to have anybody with me, you were towards the top of the list. You probably don’t know this, but I had a huge crush on you in the beginning of the year (because apparently stuffed badgers with button eyes are the way to my heart), and I started noticing all the cool things you do, like tutor some of the younger kids in the library and mentor the first years. Also, you kicked but in the tasks, the first one was just bad luck. 

So I’m going to find somewhere to hide from teasing relatives before I realize what I just wrote to you and my face goes redder than a tomato. So good luck at school next year. Feel free to trounce Gryffindor, its about time Hufflepuff gets a victory. 

Sincerely,  
Harry Potter

\--------------------------------------------------

Draco Malfoy, Heir to House Malfoy,

Given the circumstances you have presented, the breach of protocol was certainly warranted. Rest assured, I understand the strange times your house faces, and that strange methods are occasionally necessary to combat them.

I am heartened to hear of your great-grandfather’s return as Lord. His leadership was marked by great success for your House in the past, and I look forward to seeing where he will channel his impressive intellect. 

On the topic of our past interactions, there were outside influences on both our interactions. Unfortunately, in order to avoid Dumbledore’s ire, I had to act less than genially towards you. If you are willing to put my actions in the past, I am willing to do the same with yours. 

I and my Houses appreciate your well wishes. Should we require anything from the House of Malfoy, we will contact through it’s Lord. 

On a personal note, I wish you good luck as the heir and in the upcoming school year. I hope your OWLs go well and lead you to a successful career.   
With well wishes,

Harriet Potter  
Titania Elvana  
Heiress and Champion of Gryffindor  
Heiress Slytherin  
Heiress Potter  
Heiress Peverell  
Heiress Gaunt  
Heiress Hufflepuff  
Heiress Ravenclaw  
Heiress Black

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally had this merged with the next chapter, but that thing's such a monster that I thought seperating the two sections was the best plan. 
> 
> See you in two weeks!


	32. THE PLAN (dun dun duuuuuuuunnnnnnnn)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ANybody who thought taking down the government was the end of Harry's plans was sorely mistaken...

Harry looked over the contents of Lavender’s letter. The social butterfly of Gryffindor had been THUROUGH. Members of every house, and every year, as well as a few graduated students and incoming ones had contributed to the package. Many sent cards or letters thanking her for taking down Fudge/Dumbassdore/fearofdeath. Some had sent small gifts or letters as well. Seamus had sent whiskey, to “drown in as needed”, some Slytherins had sent some cards filled with groveling, apologies, well wishes, thinly veiled betrothal offers/threats/searching questions about whether she was going to be the next Dark Lord. Several Hufflepuffs had sent sweats, several of which had gone off in the time the box had sat on her desk, and several Ravenclaws had sent books. Morag had written an especially sweet note with her book, describing how it was the one she used to have her parents read to her when she was sick, and that she hoped it would help while Harry was in the hospital. Susan Bones had sent a necklace with an emergency alert/portkey feature that she TOTALLY DID NOT HAVE HER AUNT GET HER ILLEGALLY. Dean Tomas had sent a set of sketches of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Professor Lupin, as well as some of Hogwarts. He also included some very cute crayon drawings by his little sisters, which were going up on the wall immediately, right by Bertrand. Luna Lovegood had sent a necklace made out of dried flowers that her dad had put a preserving charm on, as well as a cute little poem about how beautiful (if macabre) a Heliopath’s death was. And the Weasley twins, bless them, had sent a nice little kit of explosives, to “help spark things off with the new family”. 

That last one had Harry speculating on how best to prank the two. And had given her a pretty good idea…

Harry placed each letter in a pocket of Hedwig’s little owl vest. Sirius had seen it on their shopping trip a few days before and, knowing how Harry spoiled her familiar, had bought the thing. The pockets were spelled to only open to Hedwig’s beak, so the owl had to fish out each letter for each recipient. This also added some protection to Hedwig, as anyone trying to commit mail fraud would have to take Hedwig hostage and persuade the ornery bird to cooperate. And Hedwig’s numerous victims over the last four years proved she was not easily pleased. 

Harry was debating on the pool party. On the one hand, she had kind of been hiding from the world and the idea of getting to work, and the party would be a good networking opportunity if nothing else. Plus, PR was a thing she needed to increase. At the same time, Blaise was part of a fairly insular crew of elitists. If she wasn’t careful, people might think she’s joining in that attitude…

Regardless, she’d need to hear if any of her pack wanted to go. And she had been putting off certain discussions for far too long.

With a sigh, Harry got up from her desk and made her way to the hall. She heard some rustling from her parent’s room, and made her way there first, opened the door…

“Arthur, Morgana and Merlin!”

“Harry!”

“Holy Fuck!”

…and immediately slammed it closed behind her. And slid to the floor. That was an image burned into her skull.

Eventually, Lily opened the door, seemingly unaware that the shirt she had hastily thrown on was lingerie and not an actually covering anything. 

“Harry! Do you need something? Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, I just, um…” both women blushed as red as Lily’s hair. “I just, uh, have to respond to this one invitation and wanted to know if you’d come. Or not. And I was also gonna call a family meeting? Moony said I should… that is… I wanted…um…”

“Harry?” Lilly interrupted her daughter’s stuttering.

“Yes?” Harry asked, desperate for a distraction from the traumatizing images.

“We’ll be down in the main parlor in a few minutes. Why don’t you round up the rest?”

“Yeah, I’ll um, I’ll do that so uh seeyoulaterdownstairsokaybye.” And rushed out of that hall as fast as her legs would carry her.

She gathered up Moony and Padfoot (in the library and garage respectively), making sure to knock first. Luckily, neither of them was in a particularly compromising position. She also used her elf bond to summon Emmy and Warty to the meeting, both whom popped in with snacks because they were awesome like that.

When everyone gathered (James’s hair was still ruffled and Lily had a love bite forming on her jaw. Also neither of their outfits matched) Harry pulled out the invitation. 

“So, first of all, I got an invitation to a party, and I’d kind of like to go. Parents and guardians are invited, so…”

“We’d love to meet some of your friends! Who’s hosting?” James asked. 

“Well, um, that’s the thing…”

“Harry. Who.” Sirius demanded.

“Blaise Zabini.”

“Lucinda’s kid?”

“Yes?”

Sirius ran his hands through his hair. “And you want to a party hosted by Lucius Malfoy’s sister because?”

“Because networking.”

Sirius grimaced. 

“It’s a good opportunity and you know it. The invitation came after I talked to him in the Alley, and I’m willing to bet a lot of Slytherins will be there. Most of those families who were Death Eaters had those people arrested and their resurrected grandparents and great-grandparents are taking over. Which means all the kids are in for a rude awakening. If I can get in their heads while they’re still processing what’s going on, while their minds are reeling and their ideas are malleable, I can head off a lot of problems and make some allies.”

“And how exactly do you intend to do this?” Remus inquired. 

“Doing the excitable social butterfly who just wants to finally have friends routine. Also, wearing a muggle bathing suit to throw the elitists off, because the wizard suits ar Ugh-LY.”

“Harry, you don’t have to show that much skin. We can get you a wetsuit or something?” Remus mentioned. 

“You think I give a shit about showing skin? My scars are a part of me. After years of having to hide under a glamor necklace that felt like being doused in mayonnaise every morning, I’m happy to show the world what I really look like. Plus, nobody’s seen them yet, well nobody who realized it was me under all that scaring and the outrageous hair. It’ll throw people off balance, give us the upper hand.”

“Wait, then why are you wearing long sleeves all the time?” Lily asked. With the exception of the little shopping trip earlier in the week, Harry had kept herself well covered. Discussions between adults had occurred, and Andy’s advice was to leave it be until Harry brought it up. 

“Because every time Moony sees them he starts wincing and all that twitching gives me a headache?” Harry muttered. The men gaped, Lily nodded, and Remus started to look extremely upset.

“Harry, that doesn’t mean you should have to…” Remus sighed and leaned back on the couch where he was perched. “Look, I just… I see those kind of scars, like the ones I have, and… I don’t want you to go through what I did. But you clearly went through worse because I couldn’t get you out and…” 

A pillow promptly hit the werewolf in the face. 

“Shut up Moony. Ten years and you were the only wizard who ever checked up on me. And that’s including the Ministry department that was legally required to do so. There are a lot of people to blame for them but you aren’t one of them, so stop the self deprecation and shut up. It happened, it hurt, it doesn’t any more, and now I’m the only person who out-awesomes Mad Eye Moody’s appearance. But yes, if it makes it easier on you, I’m gonna cover up around the house until you adjust. The public, however, is an entirely different circumstance. A girl’s appearance is her first weapon, and a deadly one in the right hands. Now, who wants to come to the party with me?”

“I’ll go.” Sirius piped up. “Lucinda and I knew each other pretty well, might be able to help out with that networking you plan on doing. “

“Cool.”

“I think I should sit this one out.” James said. “Don’t want to fall in the pool and drown or something. “

“Then, I’ll stay home with you.” Remus added.

“And I guess I’ll come with to.” Lily said. “If you don’t need me here James?”

“No, go on. Who knows, Lady Slytherin might teach the members of her house something about making assumptions.”

Harry coughed a bit before piping up. “Bout that…”

Remus and Sirius immediately turned to glare at her. “What did you do.” They both demanded in unison. 

“Nothing, nothing I swear… yet.”

Remus put his head in his hands while Sirius flopped for a moment. “What are you planning then?” Moony asked. 

“Well… you know how we’re in charge of Hogwarts now? I have some ideas…”

James looked up from picking over Warty’s cookies. “What kind and how many?”

“Well…” Willie popped in, deposited several dozen two inch binders and notebooks on the coffee table, before bowing and popping out. “Just a few?”

Remus reached forwards curiously and started flipping through the binder labeled “history”. Lily followed suit, this time with the one labeled “accounts and payments”. 

“These are… Harry is this a new history curriculum?” Remus asked after a few pages. 

“Yep. Let’s face it, nobody learns from Binns. We need an actual teacher who wont put students to sleep and can talk about more than just goblin wars.”

“But half this binder isn’t even wizard history…”

Harry nodded. “Yep. Look, only about forty of the five hundred magical kids who should be in each year of Hogwarts actually attend. There are a bunch of reasons for that but one of them is that a majority of witches and wizards live in the muggle world, so they need a muggle education. Now, three hundred years ago, Hogwarts had literature and mathematics and even science classes. But now it has none of them, students get no muggle education, and because of that the children who want to work in the muggle world are essentially barred from Hogwarts and the kids who go to Hogwarts are practically barred from the muggle job market. I want us to have every Hogwarts student taking their A Levels within the next decade, minimum, and the history curriculum is a good place to start.”

“This plan calls for two teachers? And possibly as many as ten?” Remus inquired, flipping further into the binder and examining the dividers that split the plan into sections. 

“Yep. I also want to see at least half the magical population going to Hogwarts within the next twenty years, which means the class sizes with grow sixfold. Right now each year spends and average of ten hours a week in history with Bins, split between two classes. Now, that isn’t strictly nessissary, unlike practical subjects the classes don’t need to be limited to twenty students, so the classes can get as big as forty without being unwieldy. Still, in the current setup, Binns is teaching class sixty hours a week. Sixty. We cant expect any teacher to manage that! Teachers should be limited to at most thirty five hours of teaching, allowing a five hours of grading and the rest of the week to be used for personal matters, research, or other duties, such as monitoring the halls or meals. But, if we combine all the current yearas that are split, we lower that to thirty five hours a week. But, there isn’t anyone who knows HOW to teach both magical and mundane history. And combining the two into a single class is going to make extra work-I have the seven-year curriculum outlined in that binder, but we wont know how it’ll work until we field test it. Which means we need one teacher for each side of history for now and, if Hogwarts’ class sizes grow as I hope they will, we can add on more as needed. There is also the fact that history didn’t used to be mandatory for five years, students just had to take at least one liberal arts class every year and take at least three years of history over their education. This plan calls for us to eventually go back to that model, instead of using history of magic as a placeholder in kids’ schedules where they used to have classes that no longer exist.”

Remus nodded along to Harry’s summary. “Well, if you want the students to start taking A levels, that’s probably a good plan. “

“Excuse me, what are A levels?” James asked. 

“Its like OWLS or NEWTs but for muggle subjects.” Lily explained. “You need certain ones to get certain jobs or accepted into different university programs.”

“Oh. So doing this would let Hogwarts students get jobs in the muggle world if they wanted?”

“In the long run, yes.” Harry explained. She was pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace at that point, face and motions extremely animated. “But it could also have political ramifications. Most Hogwarts students don’t realize that the muggle world directly affects the wizard one. For example, most modern wizard fortunes and wizard areas were established by taking abandoned muggle properties when the muggles died off during the Black Death. And Grindlewald was not only harassing the wizarding world, he was actually the man behind Hitler, who’s acts cause permanent affects to the muggle and wizarding cultures to this day. If we combine the two histories, we can break down pureblood dogma and start undoing Grindlewald, Dumbledore and Voldemort’s damage to our society.”

“That makes a lot of sense. “ Lily said, sounding impressed. Harry preened a bit under that. Her dad had been awkward but supportive these last few weeks (except when she showed him her animagus form, then he’d gone nuts), but her mom had been… very standoffish, often scowling whenever Harry acted, well, like she had been abused and had a few quirks because of it. But now Lily seemed rather proud, and Harry was going to soak it up for all it was worth.

“I see several binders here with other subjects.” Sirius interjected. “Transfiguration, DADA, COMC, Charms, Science, Chemistry, Psychology and Sociology, Magical and Mundane Cultures of the World…”

“Yep.” Harry said, bouncing in her seat a bit. “I have curriculum plans for over fifty subjects, depending on how things go. About twenty of them are magical, and the rest are all mundane. That binder there.” She pointed to the biggest binder, covered in white glitter and marked _The GRAND PLAN FOR EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION_ “summarizes all of them. But we only need a few to get involved over the next few years, and several of those can be combined. Psychology and Sociology would only be one class for example, the teacher for it could help out with History or Cultures instead, so their time wouldn’t be wasted. A bunch of them have overlaps like that so we can introduce them and phase in new teachers as class sizes grow, or specialize the ones we already have.”

“And this.” Lily said, lifting the bright green accounts binder still on her lap, “Is how we’re going to pay for it?”

“Uh huh. Well, the summary. I have specific binders dedicated to subcategories on the topic. One thing I found out was that Hogwarts hasn’t had access to its own Gringotts accounts in over a hundred and fifty years.”

“Wait, what? How did that happen?” Remus asked, while he exchanged the history binder for the one marked ‘Hogsmede finances and rent’.

“Phineas Nigelus Black. You see, it used to be that Hogwarts was tuition free. The school was payed for by the rent on Hogsmede -which we own, by the way, ,and everyone who ‘owns property’ there has technically been squatting illegally for the last century or so- and the other villages the Founders Family owns, and by graduating students paying back the school. You see, students don’t have to pay to go to Hogwarts, but they have to pay a small fee every year after they graduate. The fee is small enough that it takes forty years for it to match what tuition for seven years would be. But, students have to pay it until their deaths. There are ways to get out of paying it- aurors are excused while they are working for the DMLE, Hogwarts employees are exempt, anyone who lives in a Hogwarts owned village is exempt because their rent is seen to cover it, and students don’t have to pay the year that they have a child, because its expected that child of a former student will also attend Hogwarts. This meant that any child could go based on merit, not their family’s funds. Phineas didn’t like that poor kids and muggleborns could afford to go, so he tried to change it to be tuition based. But that broke the finance rules Hogwarts had worked under before, and so the Goblins locked the vault according to their deal with the founders. The thing is, the students sign a magical contract when they put on the Hat, where they agree to the old payment scheme and not the tuition one. The contract won’t steal their magic if they break it or anything, but it is still there and signed. So a lot of families are actually owing Hogwarts money, while others have been overpaying for their kids to attend. I have an entire section on ways to deal with that financial mess.”

“Wait.” Lily said, holding a hand and rubbing the bridge of her nose, “My parents had to pull Petunia out of her private school to send me to Hogwarts. You’re telling me that never should have happened?”

“Yep. Oh, and founder’s descendants don’t have to pay. Forgot about that.”

“That’s just… I don’t…” Lily sputtered as she processed how her parents got jipped. 

Sirius, who had picked up The GRAND PLAN FOR EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION, spoke up. 

“So, what’s the goal of all these changes. I assume you have one?”

“Three goals actually. One, to blur the lines between the classes in magical society so that pureblood dogma doesn’t have any ground to stand on. Two, to prepare my generation for when the wizarding world gets discovered, which is definitely happening within the next century, and three, to hide the former two causes under the veneer of improving education. Keep the kids excited about all the new classes offered and options, and they won’t realize that many of the classes are designed to accomplish the first two goals.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this.” Lily said, staring at the binders. 

“Yeah, well… look, I’ve seen what not understanding has done to our country. And I realized pretty early something needed to change. This was before I knew you two could be brought back, and so I decided if nobody else was going to do it, I would. And before I knew it, I had all these ideas of improvements, and the project kind of just blew up in my face. And it was fun, having a grand plan that wasn’t about surviving. Something that meant living, that reminded me there was a future after Dumbledore. 

“But I cant do this alone. And I know there are holes in my plans I’m not seeing. So, are you guys willing to help me fix magical education? Because technically, you four are the ones who own Hogwatrs, and if you say no there’s nothing I can do. Well, not until you all die at least, which isn’t happening for anther hundred years if I have anything to say about it-and I do.”

Each adult stared at Harry for several long moments.

“Harry.” Remus started. “Is this the only plan you have working now? To reform Hogwarts?”

Harry shook her head. “No. but all of my other plans are predicated on how this one goes. And I can’t start most of them for a few years. And even if I could start them now, several would require me to have more power and resources than I currently do for them to go smoothly. Getting public respect, control of that Hogwarts vault, and control of my peer’s education is a good way to get that power though. Well, for you to get that power, which I will then borrow as needed. But right now, this is the only one that looks to make any kind of progress in the near future.”

“Alright.” Sirius said “I’m in. So where do we start?”

“Well, that’s one of the things I’m not sure about. I don’t know how fast would be too fast to change things, you know? But maybe I should just start listing my first few ideas, starting with the easiest and least disruptive, and we can work upwards from there?”

“That sounds like a good idea.” James said. “What’s the easiest.”

“Well, we’ve already dismissed the Board of Governors. And Dumbledore’s gone. So we need to have a Headmaster.”

“Minerva’s already deputy.” Remus replied.

“Yes, well, here’s the thing. She technically wasn’t.”

Remus narrowed his eyes. “How.”

“Well, according to the charter, no administrative and teaching positions can be held simultaneously by the same person, with the exception of being head of a subject department. A person can have multiple teaching positions, or multiple administrative positions, but never one of each. It’s supposed to prevent teachers from having their hands in to many pots, and based on some old ideas about how teachers should focus on teaching and research without worrying about administration. Also there was an issue in the early years where a teacher had an administrative position and used it to try and embezzle, so the founders just made the separation of administration and teaching staff part of the charter. So even though Dumbass called her his deputy, she never had the magical powers incumbent with the position. The same goes for the Heads of House-they don’t actually have access to any of the associated powers. And we need to fix that, cause the school won’t work properly until we do.”

“Alright, so we make Minerva the Headmaster, and ask the teachers if they want to keep the administrative position or the teaching position, and then fill in the missing jobs.” James said from over the “Gringotts accounts” binder that he was perusing. “Judging by these numbers, we definitely have the money for it.”

“Well…”

“Harry. What are you thinking?” Remus demanded. 

“Actually, I have ideas about who should replace the current Heads of House. You see, there are a few positions that no longer exist that I think we could resurrect. And a few people who I think would make the perfect Heads of House who could double up on them.”

“Okay.” Lily said. “Who?”

“No.” James immediately shot out, waving a finger at his daughter’s face. “No. you aren’t thinking who I think you’re thinking.”

Harry smiled sheepishly. “I promise you’ll like the positions I’m thinking?”

“No.” James repeated. “No no no no no. NNNNNNOOOOOOOOO. Nope. Not happening. I am not going to become the responsible authority figure I’ve always hated. No.”

“But Dad…”

“No Harry, I wont do it.”

“You were an auror. Technically that was a position of high social authority.”

“No.no no no no.”

“You’ll technically have authority over Filch.”

James stopped denying and closed his mouth. “Authority over Filch?” he asked. 

“Yep. As Hogwarts’ accountant, you could technically control the purse strings of his entire department. And I actually have some other ideas about what we can do to him…”

James seemed to consider for a moment. “And I’d also be Head of House?”

“Yep. Gryffindor, obviously. I actually think it’d be perfect for you. We all know they can get rowdy, but you were also an auror. They’ll respect you, but being in the corps gave you a sense of discipline. And you were yourself a Gryffindor, so that wont hurt.”

“But then who’ll stay home with you? If all of us are working at Hogwarts?”

“Well, that won’t be a bad thing for me. You could switch your off nights so that someone is always home. Plus, if something comes up and you cant be, I always have the elves.”  
Emmie looked up from polishing the oak furniture. “Elvsies been looking after Elvana for years. And with no mean Dumbles in the way, wes can be extra involved.”

“But you’d rarely see us.” James wined.

“Not necessarily. I mean, I don’t want to go to _school_ at Hogwarts for a bunch of reasons, but I have no problems with the castle itself. Aside from the incident during first year, everything particularly traumatizing happened somewhere I wouldn’t have to go. Everyone my age who I know goes there, there’s a great library to study for my NEWTS, and I could help you out with your jobs.”

“But Andy says…”

“That me going to school there would be a problem. And she’s right. And that me spending the night would be a problem. Also right. But not that I can’t go there. Look, my abuse was never limited to one location. It happened at Privet Drive to. So I don’t generally associate the places with the actions. Plus, of the two locations, significantly less happened to me at Hogwarts than the Dursley’s. At Hogwarts I at least had some outlets, more than in the muggle world. And if being there becomes to much, I can always come home.”

“Wait, back up.” Sirius interjected. “You want all of us working at Hogwarts?”

“Well, yeah. You’re all qualified for the positions I’m thinking of, for now at least. And this way, you are in the perfect place to monitor the changes. Plus, it gets you all out of the house. And don’t tell me you don’t need it, you haven’t even been back three weeks and Dad’s already going stir crazy. And Sirius, you’re at a point where you definitely need to get back to living, and that means a job. So yes, I think it’s a good idea. And it’ll give me space to study and experiment without being alone. Cause this last week…”

“You’ve been hiding in your lab constantly like Golem in his cave and need to come to us on your terms, not the other way around like its been since the ritual?” Sirius suggested. Harry and James both threw pillows at him, while Remus hit him with a binder. 

“Well, yes. I love you guys, but we all need our own space and useful things to do.”

“Okay, so you think James should do accounting. Where do you want me?”

“Well, I think the Head of House positions are obvious, but there’s an added layer to them. For the last few decades, the HoH’s have all focused on one aspect of their Houses and ignored the others. Gryffindor has been so bravery oriented, the fact that they are supposed to be protectors has fallen by the wayside. Dad was an auror and can totally address that. Ravenclaws are smart, yes, but the modern ones are far from open to new ideas that don’t line up with preconceived notions. In short, they lack wisdom. But a HoH who was wise enough to see the flaws in idea’s his family held for generations, he could make a difference. Hufflepuffs are loyal and friendly, but not as kind as they should be. The last year of constant bullying attests to that. But a man who chose to remain loyal to his ideas and stay a good person in the face of persecution could be a great example to them. And Slytherins are so focused on their pride they don’t bother to be smart about their plans, and can’t see where adaptations would benefit them more. The woman who adapted to an entirely new culture and ended up one of its smartest at age eleven would be more than capable of showing them a thing or two. And that’s the sales pitch for anyone who needs it.

“As for the other positions, well, Hagrid and Filch have been doing the Security Chief’s job between them. I think a certain former auror would do rather well. And with all the paperwork the new hires and rule changes are going to spit up, the woman who used to be Head Girl could keep things organized rather well. And if that gives her an excuse to know everything that’s going on at the school and meddle as necessary, well, that’d just be gravy. And for the Deputy Headmaster… well, anyone who could keep Padfoot and Prongs in line during their own Hogwarts years would find being put in charge of student discipline a breeze.”

Lily raised an eyebrow at Harry. “You want me to be a secretary?”

“THE Secretary of Hogwarts. Capital S. And yes, if only because it’s the place that will let you meddle to your heart’s content, and you’ll essentially have a finger in every pie in the castle. A lot of the other changes I’m thinking are big ones, that would need someone with centralized authority to enact. You’d essentially be in charge of all the jobs that havn’t been delegated yet, which gives a huge amount of control over the initial stages.”

“And you want a muggleborn in charge of Slytherins?”

“Yep. If you have any discipline problems, you take them to the werewolf Deputy. And then to McGonagall. It won’t be easy, but I didn’t take you for someone who takes the easy route.”

All the men unanimously scooted their chairs back at that comment.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that. You died wandless in front of me for Pete’s sake. You don’t quit. And I’m going to enjoy watching you teach all those pureblood bigots that very fact.”

All the men started scooting back to their prior places as Lily’s glare diffused. 

“Oh. Thank you?”

“You’re welcome. ANWAYS, headmistress. I say ask McGonagall.”

“Agreed.” Remus said. “Any oppositions?”

Head shakes all around.

“Good.” Harry said. “Next up, we need a new Transfiguration teacher. And I say we get two, not one; one with a Mastery, and an assistant, with the understanding that they can earn a Mastery and become our next teaching hire when the class size expands.“

“That’s a really good idea. Lots of people used to get their Masteries working under Hogwarts Professors. Reviving that practice would have the Traditionals happy and willing to listen to what else we have to say.” Sirius supported. 

“And I suggest they both be from out of Britain. We only have seven legal animagi-well, nine now-when it used to be a skill held by as much as a third of the adult population. Our candidate pool simply won’t be big enough.” Remus reasoned.

Harry jumped in, “Yes, and if we get someone who speaks a different language, and we have two teachers, that will help with my other idea. We start foreign language classes.”

Sirius was nodding again. “Hogwarts got rid of those when I was in school. Bringing them back could only help. Although Latin would be even better.”

Harry saw this was going to be a long list, and so she called to Willie, sending him an image of what she wanted. A few moments and a pop later, she was drawing three columns on a whiteboard, as well as a line across the center. 

“Alright, we need to organize this. Three columns, Definitely, Maybe, and save for later. Top section’s for classes, bottom for everything else. Hiring Mc-G for Headmistress, definitely. Adding your appointments to the staff also are definitely. Hiring a Transfiguration professor and an assistant are both on definitely. I guess whether we start with the languages those teachers know depends on what those languages are?” nods all around. “Okay, so mis. foreign languages is a maybe. Latin is a really good idea. Do we want to find somebody now, or should we look later?”

“I think we should look now. There are a lot of people who know it, since it was the most recently taught, and the conservatives will love it.” Sirius said. Everyone seemed to agree, so Harry added it to the list. 

“How many classes do we want to add? We don’t want to overload the experienced teachers with new ones in one year.” Lily said. 

“Well, there are fifteen people there now. Lets limit it to ten new people this time, that way we aren’t overwhelming the old. Each teacher can also get a mentor from the existing pool.” Remus suggested. 

“I like that.” Sirius admitted. “Between the four of us, there’s room for six new teachers. We said we want two for Transfiguration, that means four left.”

“We’ll need a potions teacher to!” Harry put in. “Snape got fired officially two days ago. Or two teachers, if we want to do the same thing as we did with Transfiguration, which I say is a good idea. If we get the student body expanding, we’ll need more people trained as soon as possible to compensate.”

“But then we won’t be able to hire the two history teachers you recommended.” Lily pointed out. “Not if we want a Latin teacher.”

Sirius stepped in. “I think that’s a problem for next year. After all, I doubt we’ll take on any extra students this year as well. And we have the DADA post to deal with."

“Speaking of which,” Harry interjected I say get rid of it.”

“What!” all of the men exclaimed.

“Harry, the students need to know how to defend themselves…” Remus scolded her.

“Its actually not mandatory.” Harry explained. “During the War with Grindelwald, a bunch of classes got removed, including several of the core requirements. To compensate for the open holes in everyone’s schedules, the elective DADA class was changed to a mandatory one, since it was the elective with some of the highest attendance rates, due to the war. But before that, it wasn’t mandatory. I say we get rid of it, but add to the schedule as an option a class called Applied Magics. It used to be an elective, but we can make it the replacement class for DADA, and then have an upper level option, Applied Defensive Magics. That will allow a more rounded education, and in addition, if we change the room and staff it with someone who’s never taught DADA, we should get around the curse.”

“Wait, you how do you know that will break the curse?” Lily asked. “Nobody’s done that in fifty years!”

“Because I know Voldemort and his tricks. The spell is a curse linked to the protective runes in the castle.” Harry explained, drawing the runic diagram in some blank space on the board. “The castle has some pretty nasty defenses meant to subvert anyone who tries to breach it. Staircases moving to prevent them from getting farther inside, stuff like that. Subtle, but effective. The curse just ramped that up and channeled it at the DADA teacher. BUT, it has some flaws. Because Hogwarts is semi-self aware, it knows when we try things like moving the classroom or changing teacher. But the curse is linked to the position, so as long as something from DADA moves to ADM, we’ll have to deal with the curse following. If we change everything though-the name, the teacher, the room, the purpose of the class, and the requirements for taking it-we should be able to confuse the school. And after a few years without a target, the spell will just dissipate, no longer a problem. Until then, we transfer the most important parts of DADA to the ADM class to compensate, but start it with a new curriculum. Plus, lets face it, only a handful of students even get a year’s worth of knowledge out of five years of the course. They can get far more out of learning strategies for using magic efficiently or creative applications than they will out of learning how to cast a few specific defensive spells that only work half the time anyways.”

Everybody but James was looking over the runic diagram for the curse intently. 

“That… makes a lot of sense.” Remus said after his examination. “I assume you already have a curriculum plan somewhere in this mess?”

“Right here.” Lily piped up, handing the werewolf a tan binder with sequins (yes, Harry had decorated all her binders, if she was going to have to use them for years they were going to look pretty damn it). 

“And if we make it elective, or just say that students will need to take two years of it before they graduate or something like that, we only will need one teacher for it, because the course for all the years would need to be the same and years could combine. Then, as we need to split it into more distinct skill levels in later years, we can add more teachers.” Remus said, glancing through the binder. “I like it. It removes a lot of the hassle of DADA, needing to know who was taught what. This way, the new teacher will start with everyone learning the same concepts, even if they have different spells learned, and we build from there. But it should only be offered from a certain year and above, that way the students know enough spells to make it worthwhile.” He pointed out.

“Makes sense. “ Lily agreed. “Maybe third year? A lot of spells, but not so many they can do everything with specific ones, that way they can get more creative? I heard about how you did the first task Harry, and stuff like that could be really useful.”

“Acio is fourth year content now-I know, it was second year when you guys went to school, like I said, the standard of education’s really gone down-but I agree. That seems a good time to start them on it. And actually, I have an idea for history now that I think about it.” Harry said with a grin. “What if we pick a teacher this year, but only have them observe some of Binns’s classes-the magical teacher, and we can hire the muggle or muggle-knowledgeable one next year- that way the teacher knows what level the students are at, and doesn’t have to waste time on placement tests? I know a guy who owes me a favor and is totally qualified for the subject, two of them actually, and either one would work.”

“Oh? Who?” Sirius asked. 

“Let me talk to them first.” Harry suggested. “And if they say no, a third option is actually coming to mind now. I’ll get back to you.”

Sirius looked skeptical, but let Lily move the conversation forwards. 

“Okay, so we know we need to hire two Transfiguration staff, preferably foreign. Who could we hire for Latin?”

“I have an idea but you’re not going to like it.” James said. 

Lily scowled at her husband. “Why?”

James coughed. “Well, she’s really good with languages. She actually knows French, Spanish, Italian and German, so we could hire her and then assign language classes based on the demand, working alongside the Transfiguration professors.”

“And I won’t like her because why?”

Sirius’s eyes widened. “No. James, tell me you’re not thinking who I’m thinking of.”

“Sorry Padfoot, she’s the best person we’re going to get and you know it.”

Lily took on a look comically similar to Sirius’s. “James, you can’t mean?”

As the three bickered, Harry turned to Remus. “Who are they talking about?”

“Marlene McKinnon.”

“Padfoot’s ex?”

“Yep.”

“The one that almost ran him over with a hippogriff?”

“Yep.”

“Who he dated three times and cheated on four of them?”

“Yep.”

“The one who threatened to hang his balls from the owlery window If he ever came within sight of her again?”

“Yep.”

“Oh. Why doesn’t Mum like her?”

“They were roomates and Marlene was a mean girl. Long story short, a gravy shampoo and a few color changing charms got off before the teachers broke up the fight and McGonagall switched them to different rooms.”

“Mom attacked someone who wasn’t Dad?”

“Oh yeah. She went after me and Sirius and a few other guys to. Don’t let the whole shy thing fool you, she’s like a pressure cooker, when she explodes, she does damage.”

“Huh. So I guess that’s where she got the reputation for being a firecracker?”

“Oh yeah.”

The argument seemed to calm down at that point, with James the obvious winner.

“There’s nothing forcing her to say yes you know. She could always turn the offer down.” Remus pointed out to the distraught losers. 

“And on that note, I have an idea for potions.” Harry said. “Sophie Mikalench. I’ve worked with her before. She’s a vampire, and is working with me and a couple other people to research vaccines for magical diseases like vampirism and lycanthropy. She’s really good, but doesn’t get much work, which has slowed down the research. But Hogwarts funds all professor’s research, so we’d be supporting a good cause as well. She has an apprentice, her nephew Markus, who’s human and could come with for the second teaching position. I could reach out to her under my real name-she only knows my pseudonym- or you guys could.”

“Alright, we’ll reach out. Any ideas for ADM and AM?” Sirius asked. 

Harry shook her head, as did the others. 

“Well, hiring is the Headmistress’s job. Maybe we let Minnie handle it?” James pointed out. 

Remus smirked wolfishly. “Can’t do her entire job for her after all. Alright, so that’s employment handled. Harry, you said you have other suggestions?”

“Oh yeah.” Harry quicky erased the horizontal line on the board. “looks like we didn’t need that. So, one idea I have, is year-based common rooms, each restricted to members of that year, as well as three larger ones, one for first through second years, one for third through fifth, and one for sixth and seventh. One of the girls in my dorm, Parvati, has a twin in Ravenclaw, but there’s nowhere comfortable to spend time together. Empty classrooms are dirty, outside isn’t always an option, the library has Pince and the Great Hall is to loud. If we had ten extra common rooms not divided by house though, we could alleviate that pressure. Merlin knows the castle has the room for it.”

“That makes sense. But who would monitor them? The common rooms have mirrors in the HOH’s office, who would look after the common rooms?” Lily asked. 

“Well.” Harry pointed out. “House Elves. There are legal limits on where they can actively work based on the original contract, but not on passive work while they relax. A nanny elf, for example, can still be in the same room as their charges off hours as long as the elf doesn’t actually care for it, just reports when someone else needs to do something. And getting elves to take their CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED.” Harry glared at the two elves in the room, who were regularly guilty of breaching their own contracts by working to much. “time off in a way that they can still rationalize that they’re helping is always useful. We put mirrors like the HOH ones in the elf break room, and say that at least ten elves need to be taking a break at any given time, and if they happen to see any rule breaking in the mirror’s they’ll come get us. The elves will take it as an order and do so, but it wont technically be breaking their contracts. Warty, you have the people for that, yes?”

The little elf, who had been retrieving the previously thrown pillows and fluffing them with vigor, looked up. “Yes missy Titania. Warty and elvsies will watch the kidsys when on our no-work-rest-time. We’s be helping but not breaking rules, yes?”

“Yes, Warty, that’s exactly the point.”

“Yay!”

“Excuse me, who are you?” Lily asked politely and gently. 

“Mes bes Warty. Mes bes the head elf of Hogywarts. Mes keeps all other elves in line and listens to Titania.”

“Oh. Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you Warty.” She offered her hand, and the little elf shook it with all seriousness. “I hope you know that, now that I’m the Lady Slytherin, you and the others can come to me with any problems or for anything you may need. Understand?”

“Oh yes Lady Snaky. Warty wills come to yousys and Lady Titania when Warty bes needing something, and will tell all other elvsies the same.”

“That’s very nice to hear.” Lily said with a shy smile. 

Harry just didn’t get her mother. She’d been like this in the Alley to, all breathy and timid. It was really weird. 

“Alright, so we definitely have the money for that.” James said. “And the room. Where should we put them?”

Several locations were discussed, until a few central rooms near the library were agreed upon. 

“Next up, sorting.” Harry said. “I know this one will be more controversial, but it needs to be said. Dumby’s been fiddling with the sorting hat for years. People have ended up in the wrong houses, including you three, who should have all gone to the houses of your ancestors in all likelihood, instead of Dumbass’s spell interfering and putting some of the most powerful people in Griffindor automatically. I think we need to resort the houses.”

“Re-sort! Do you have any idea the sort of chaos that would cause?” Sirius exclaimed.

“Look, I don’t like it either. But when I was sorted, the Hat directly told me I should have been in Slytherin, even though it was tampered with to send me to Griffindor. Just look at Slytherin! Sixty years ago, it had the same number of muggleborns as every other house. Now, it has two, both of whom have to hide what they are because of social pressure. And the safety thing doesn’t help-the houses became so insular, that the Hat started to make choices based on where the students would be safest, rather than where they actually belonged. Nevile is a good example-he is a total Hufflepuff, with how loyal he is, but he has no confidence and if he was put there he would have gotten abused by his uncle even more. So the Hat put him where was easiest rather than where was right, because Dumbass was preventing teachers from reporting abused students. But if the houses hadn’t become so tribalized, it wouldn’t be socially acceptable to force a child into their parent’s houses at all! It needs to stop, and the only way to do that is in one fell swoop.”

“That makes a lot of sense.” Lily said. “But rearranging everything the first night will be a nightmare.”

“Yep, but if you have a better way, tell me now.”

“Nevile was abused?”

“Oh yeah. If Amelia hadn’t had his place investigated when she saw Dumby was fucking with his life to, I would have reported it myself. The uncle’s already arrested and Augusta was under investigation, although judging by the letter Nevile sent me, she had no idea about his uncle and is about to go on a rampage now that she knows the truth.”

“Well then, if…” saying this almost seemed to pain Lily. “If you think this will prevent that, I say do it.”

“But it’ll ruin the quidditch teams!” Sirius wined, half joking.

“Tough. It’s what’s best for the students.” Remus shot back.

“Alright, but if we do that, I think that will have to be all the changes for this year that we all need to talk about.” James pointed out. “We can each change things within our departments, but can we agree, nothing more than that will affect the students this year? If we change things to fast it wont go well.”

“And we need to get Minnie in on this.” Remus said. “She’s the Headmistress after all. Just because we overrule her on most things as owners doesn’t mean we should run roughshod over her school. “

“Agreed.” Lily confirmed.

“There’s one more thing we should do though.” Harry said. “We should have the first years and any new students use the payment plan system, not tuition. I know you’re going to have a lot to sort out, Dad, and I’ll give you my binders on the topics, but we should start shifting the finances back to the traditional system now. That way, the Goblins will let us access the old vaults.”

“I think that would be acceptable.” Remus replied. “We just have an insert explaining with the acceptance letters.”

“Alright! Anything that doesn’t affect the students we should talk about?”

“Actually.” Harry said after a moment. “I forgot about this one. Filch. As a child who was chained up and beaten multiple times” all the adults flinched as well as the elves, “He should not be allowed to interact with students. A caretaker’s job is to prevent vandalism, do night rounds, and watch the castle grounds when the students are not in residence. He should never be put in a position of power over kids. And if he starts threatening them like he has me, I want him gone.”

“Agreed” the adults unanimously replied. 

“Alright then. Let me give you each the binders you might need and we can get going!” Harry said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've been sick all week, which means I couldn't go over this like I normally do. I almost didnt post at all actually, but I figured slightly lower quality was better than late. Hope it's okay?
> 
> I know some people are going to have problems with some things in this (okay, a lot of things). Bear with me, I have a lot written beyond this, and stuff gets addressed.


	33. Krav Maga

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James takes Harry to practice

“I’m leaving for class!” James heard a voice yell. 

A female voice. Wait…

“Harry? Is that you? What class? It’s summer!”

He heard the faint sounds of a sigh, followed by a heavy stomping as she came back from the front hallway towards the parlor James had claimed a pseudo study. 

“It’s not school or anything. Just Krav Maga.” The irritated tean muttered, crossing her arms in the doorway and looking the epitome of insufferable rebel. She had on an odd pair of muggle trousers, and a loose t-shirt reading “I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I’m all out of bubblegum”. Over her shoulder was a black duffle bag. 

James quirked his lips and verbally poked the little pile of angst and blue-purple braids. “Oh. What the fuck is that?” She wanted to be surly? Two could play that game. 

A faint “James Potter language!” could be heard from a few floors up. Both troublemakers grinned, and the tension dissipated. 

“It’s a type of exercise I do. But I can’t often go during the school year, so my teacher is going to be extra hard on me. Which is why I can’t be late!”

James frowned at her. “exercise” sounded a lot like “martial arts” that Padfoot had warned him about. 

“And where exactly are these lessons?”

Harry shifted on her feet. “London.”

“Uh huh. And you are getting there how?”

“Broom?”

“By yourself?”

“I always have before.”

“Right. No. Cm’on. If it’s in London, we can take the floo and then walk.”

Harry giggled a bit. “You’re taking me to my lesson?”

“Yep. What’s so funny about that?”

“Nothing, it’s just. It’s a parent thing. Supposed to be. Dropping your kid off at sports or whatever.”

James smirked at her while he put on the thin gloves Lily insisted he wear when pushing the chair manually for an extended period of time. He had no idea if he’d be able to use the magical propulsion systems where they were going. 

Flooing in the chair was always fun. He couldn’t fall over in it (which was convenient, given Harry had gotten her inability to stick the landing from him) but a lot of the fireplaces had a small lip or step. When he had help, they’d just ease him over it, but since he had been gifted the chair (going up and down stairs himself was such a convenience) he had to practice how to maneuver and get out of the way quickly. Although when it was Harry falling out of the fireplace, there was really no such thing as far enough away. 

After she had picked herself up and James had vanished the soot (just because Harry illegally used magic at home did not mean they were letting her do it in public), and James had floated out of the crowded bar (Harry having to shove several people and objects out of his way, getting snarled at and snarling right back) he started mining for info. Because really, he loved Padfoot and Moony, but they were far to ambivalent about Harry knowing how to fight and use weapons. He understood why she needed the knowledge, but that did not mean it was safe to just sit back and let her handle it. And besides, he wanted to make sure she was okay. This would be her first time in muggle London since she’d taken off the glamor amulet, and he knew people could be jerks. 

“So, what exactly is this class in?”

“Krav Maga…”

“Sounds foreign.”

“Israeli.”

“Really? I thought all that martial arts stuff was Asian?”

Harry shook her head. “No, almost every culture has a martial arts. It’s just that we don’t think of them as such. Boxing is arguably a martial arts, so is wrestling, and both have styles native to Britain.”

“Oh. So why Krav Maga?”

Harry snorted. “Because the teacher saw me fending off Dudley and his gang when I was ten and started teaching me.”

“Oh. But why not learn something more common?”

Harry sighed. “Well, a bunch of reasons. Krav Maga was made for quick training. So unlike the more formalized stuff, I can practice in the summers then let it sit while I’m at Hogwarts. Plus, it’s pretty new, and realy open about using improvised weapons and stuff, as well as how to disarm an opponent. So the concepts are a lot easier to transfer to fighting with magic.”

“And you’ve been doing it for four years?”

“Well, probably closer to five now. I had just turned ten when he started teaching me. And just because it can be taught quickly doesn’t mean it’s easy. It takes years to be considered a master. Although, I doubt I’ll get that far.”

“Oh. Is it fun?”

“Not really. It’s supposed to be a self-defense tactic, and I don’t like exercising in general. Give me a book to read or experiment to run any day. But it’s good to have, and my teacher is pretty creative.”

She led him to a middle of the road section of town, a little studio tucked on the second floor of a shop, above a sporting supplies store. Harry made sure the door to the street was shut before he floated up the stairs. 

“Hey Mr. Goldmin!” she yelled into the white-walled studio. A rack by the far wall held a bunch of weapons, as well as some rather innocuous objects like a stool and a rubber stapler, and the floor was covered in blue mats. “Mind if my dad comes in to watch?”

A middle-aged man with blond hair and a mustache wandered out from behind a door. “I thought your father died?”

“You heard about the Returning?” she asked, a smirk promising trouble etched on her lips.

The man frowned. “You mean all those people declared dead that they found alive?”

Harry raised an eyebrow. The man’s face went slowly from confused to enlightened. 

“Well, you’ve been busy. Was all of that you?”

Harry shrugged. “Well, I had elves helping out, obviously.”

“Um, Harry?” James asked from the corner he’d parked himself in, as far away from the weapons as he could get. The one brief pillow fight that had occurred at the hospital made James intimately aware of Harry’s ability with improvised weapons. 

“Yes?”

“He knows?”

“Knows what?”

“If you mean about magic, then yes, I’m informed. Your daughter told me what she is about three years ago.” The man spoke up, offering a hand to shake.

“So you didn’t know before she told you?” James asked, glaring at his daughter who wasn’t at all sheepish. 

“No, I did not. Although I’m glad she did, such an opportunity! Learning to apply these lessons to a completely different type of combat! And really, look at her. She needs all the help dodging danger she can get.” He flicked his fingers at Harry, who stuck out her tongue. 

“That’s not what I meant. This isn’t exactly legal…”

Harry scoffed. “What? Telling people about myself? What are wizards, a cult? I have a right to be what and who I am in public without censure-every human rights decision made since World War II undergirds that concept. The Ministry has no right to tell me what I can and cannot say about my own life to other people. If I was exposed to military secrets or something, okay, but I’m not. This is about me being who I am. And that includes magic. Besides, the world’s going to find out in the next century anyways, if nothing changes.”

James sputtered. “Harry, we’ve kept our world separate for hundreds of years…”

“Okay, three problems with that argument. One, Grindlewald told the Nazis about us. World War II was just as magically based as it was in mundane politics. So the idea that we’ve been consistently separate? Completely wrong. Furthermore, because we make telling people about us illegal, the only ones who normally do so are in fact those who don’t care about the law, like Grindlewald. Meaning any decent muggle who finds out about us and looks into the history will see nothing but a string of evil wizards wreaking havoc. 

“Two, the rest of the world hasn’t kept them separate. There are sections of Asia, Africa and the Americas that are still fully integrated magical/muggle communities. Egypt might have been the first region to segregate themselves, but for a significant portion of Asia and Africa, segregation is a foreign idea that degrades communities. So this idea that we are maintaining some global farce is pointless. Plenty of regions are mixed just fine, thank you very much, so suggesting we’re incapable of knowingly coexisting is undeniably false. 

“Third, and most importantly, now is not the same as hundreds of years ago. Muggles have cameras. Muggles have computers. Muggles have rapid response teams for crime scenes. Sooner or later, some muggle is going to put the pieces together. Their technology gets more sophisticated at a rate magic isn’t matching. And when they find out about us, I’d rather have allies that can vouch for me and stand up to say we aren’t all the Grindlewalds and Dumbledores of the world.”

“But you can’t just go around telling everybody…”

“And I don’t. I tell the people whom it’s relevant to. Which has pretty much been Mr. Goldmin and Mrs. Fox, one of the social workers who helped me make sure the police stopped making stuff worse with Vernorn. I am discriminating who I need to tell from who doesn’t need to know. But why the hell does a handful of sheltered brats raised with magic who don’t even realize they are, at this point, making things worse with their silence, get to tell me who I can get to know?”

“While this is a fascinating argument.” Goldmin cut in. “I must insist we get to training, yes?”

James reluctantly allowed the man to begin Harry’s tutelage. 

The Marauder knew little of hand to hand fighting. He had seen some movies with Lily, but none had anything like this. The moves were fast and brutal, not the deflecting, spinning or leaping in those moving pictures. The instructor went over weak points, joints, places that could severely injure an enemy. How to strike to kill. 

But once the review was done, and both combatants were drenched in sweat, they did something unexpected. Harry drew her wand. 

She and Goldmin met in a flurry on the mats. Harry went after him with her wand, true, but also her elbows, feet, and whatever else she could use. And she needed it, because Goldmin held his own, even against her magic.

James could see each holding back slightly. For Harry, this meant not utilizing certain skills-her animagus form, for example, could have ended the fight in about two seconds- but everything else seemed to be game. Stunning spells, cutting hexes, jinxes. And Goldmin gave as good as he got, dodging out of the way with incredible speed, taking Harry’s wand from her multiple times. But he was also not entirely involved; James could see the flick of his eyes, not the hyper-focused sort of attention a dueler had against a difficult opponent. This wasn’t about winning, it was about finding new combinations, new ways to succeed. It was about learning. Just with a lot of bruises involved. 

Eventually, Goldmin pulled out a… Merlin Morgana and Mordred, was that a wand?

It was not, he discovered, a real wand. It was one used for practice, capable of spitting out globs of paint on command but little more. But it simulated well enough, and allowed Goldmin to instruct Harry on different moves, ways to block and riposte against a wanded opponent. James came to believe this was an arrangement less about a teacher and student; rather, a Master and Apprentice, except the apprentice was a prodigy. The Master was just as invested in learning from the Apprentice as the reverse was true. 

Not that Harry was a prodigy, as the numerous failed throws or strikes or holds could attest. But Goldmin had something to learn from the relationship, and Harry was reciprocating. 

James didn’t even realize three hours had gone by, when Harry picked up her gym bag and waved the man goodbye.

“When we get home, I want to show you something.” she said.

“Cryptic.”

“You’ll see why when I show you.”

The walk to the Cauldron was awkward. James asked questions about her training, what she knew how to do. Harry asked questions about auror training, and expressed excessive anger when she realized there was not a lick of physical training involved. 

“I’m adding reforming the auror program to my to do list. Honestly, no wonder I had to take the bad guys myself! The actual law enforcement can’t do shit!”

Part of James was angry his daughter thought fixing the world’s failures her problem. The rest was amused to consider how the bigots and traditionalists would react to her reforms. 

Actually, why was he assuming this was her problem? 

That thought literally stopped him in his tracks. Harry had pointed out a problem with their society. And instead of being an adult and handling it himself, James had sat there and let her take responsibility.

A fourteen year old had more social responsibility than he did.

He was just as bad as every other asshole who stood by and depended on Harry to solve their problems. Shit. 

“Dad? You okay?”

Harry was twiddling with her braid nervously in front of him, as a few men in suits scowled and wandered around them. 

“Yeah, I just… you’re right, I never thought of it before. The Auror program definitely needs some reforms. But, wouldn’t it be better coming from a former auror who’s also on the Wizengamot?”

“You… are absolutely right.” She said, biting a lip and looking at the ground. She had the same face Lily got when designing a spell, thoughts racing a mile a minute. And he was going to put a stop on that right now, before she cut him out.

“Right. So let me and Padfoot take point on this. Maybe Tonks. You focus on other stuff, your lab and all the other products you have going on.”

“So you’re going to… what? Just fix it on your own?”

James glared. “No, _you_ wanted to do it on _your_ own. _I_ am doing the adult thing. Getting help from Padds and Tonks-I should probably call Amy to, actually-and doing this with help. And _you_ ” he shook a finger at his daughter “are staying out of it.”

‘But I can help…”

“Yes, you can. By staying out of it.”

“But Dad…”

She kept protesting all along the way home, but James saw the small smile and occasional smirk. He had won the argument, past a certain point, she was just enjoying being contrary. 

“Okay, let me get the file.” She said in the parlor, before scampering off. She came back with a manilla envelope in hand. 

“It isn’t much, but its all I was able to get. So you know how the muggle government knows about the Ministry?”

James nodded. 

“And you know how Grindlewald used the concentration camps to get people to experiment on?”

James nodded. 

“Well, the muggles took that as a kind of wakeup call. They aren’t calling for our heads or anything, but they know we pose a threat. And that they need a way to beet wizards. So, that’s what they’ve been researching.”

James looked through he file, and couldn’t help but agree. There were financial records, all tying themselves to a black ops branch of the military. And several memos form within that same branch detailing their experiments on ways to combat wizards. None of the experiments seemed… morally wrong, aside from the fact that they were, at the end of the day, developing weapons.

“Yeah. I don’t have much evidence, I broke into their base once, managed to copy what you see there and overhear a bunch of conversations. Most of what they do is in finding mechanical ways around things we do with magic, like seeing through disillusionment. But there are other governments out there, with far less… respect for human rights. Sooner or later one of those is going to get spooked and start a genocide. 

“But, if we have good, normal people to stand up for us? It could make a world of a difference. So I’m careful about who I tell, but I will tell people who I’m close to. Simply because this way, muggles are finding out about us on my terms instead of those of the people who want to wipe us out.

“I know hiding has protected us for decades. But it’s also holding us back. We’re still moving at a rate of advancement we’ve had since Egypt went into hiding. But the muggles are only getting more advanced at quicker and quicker paces.

“Voldemort was wrong about nearly everything, but even a broken clock’s right twice a day. He actually went to Nagasaki a few years after it was bombed, saw what muggles are capable of. And that there’s no defense wizards have against some of that. 

“He wanted us to come out of the closet on our terms. So do I. The difference is, his terms were genocide, segregation and annihilation. Mine are ‘hey look at the cool things we do we’re a socially stigmatized minority please be our friends and treat us like human beings we have so much to learn from each other!’”

James looked away from the excitement on his daughter’s face. This was… to much. To much for her, for him. There was a reason they had a Wizengamot to make these decisions…

The same Wizengamot that said one of his best friends wasn’t human. That his other best friend deserved to be imprisoned without a trial. 

Maybe Harry was right that they needed to come out. But this was hundreds of years of history and bad blood. Enough to cause another war. And he already sat by while Harry was put in the middle of one war by a meddling old fool. He’d be damned if he’d watch it happen again. Whether he agreed with her or not wasn’t the important part.

“That… makes sense.” James conceded. It did, he just wasn’t sure if the counterpoints made more sense. He needed more time to think on this. But it doesn’t change the fact that what you’re doing is illegal. Or that one person can’t change the world, not like that.”

“But I’m not one person. There are thousands of witches and wizards living in the muggle world. several of whom agree with me. Heck, it was actually this one squib I met while researching the horcruxes, old lady Bagshot’s niece, who turned me on to the movement. Turns out there’s been a network of muggleborns, halfbloods, squibs and purebloods married to muggles trying to get us out of the dark ages for a while. You think me telling my teacher is a problem? There are witches and wizards out there who’ve told dozens of people. We’re a lot less of a secret than the Ministry thinks.”

And it broke his heart to disagree with her. She was so animated, and dare he say it optimistic. Harry spent over half her time locked up in the basement, doing God only knows what, and he wanted so badly to make her happy. To pull her out of that room and back with him and Lily. To get that giggling baby girl back.

But now wasn’t the time. 

“I… look, you’ve given me a lot to think about.”

“Really? Cool! Then I’ll let you think about it. Just… look, I know a lot of wizards think we can or should keep hiding. And I respect that, I do. But… if the muggles knew magic was a thing. If they were able to look at the security footage from when Dumbledore broke in to take me back to the Dursleys and realized ‘oh, he’s using magic, we know how to defend against that’, I would have been out of that place a lot sooner. Yeah, keeping the secret protects the families that live in the wizarding world full time. But the ones that straddle? They spend half their muggle lives in fear of discovery, and half their wizard lives being discriminated against. This isn’t about the rich pureblood elites and their comfort. This is about the people like me, who get caught in the middle so they end up falling through the cracks.”

“And I get that. I just… this is a lot to think about.”

“I know…” and, before she could stop herself, Harry dove forward and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

“IloveyouDaddyI’mgoingdownstairsIhaveworktodookaybyyyyyeeeee!”

He stared at the corner where a purple braid had disappeared for several moments before he looked down at the file. 

What the hell was he supposed to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some notes on Krav Maga and why I chose it;
> 
> First of all, I'm not a martial artist. I'm also not a wizard, so really, disbelief should have been suspended a while ago. 
> 
> I chose Krav Maga for two reasons that are roughly connected; it's a form that can be adapted to many improvised weapons (and therefore magical combat as well) and it's a relatively new discipline. 
> 
> Historically, it started making the jump out of Israel and into Europe in the nineties, so the timing matches up with the story. And masters of Krav Maga often get that position by adding something to the style, like a new technique or strategy. So the idea the Krav Maga masters would be open to creating a wholly new set of moves to accommodate magic made sense to me. 
> 
> Also, Harry, a child who was exposed to a lot of brutality between Tom's memories and her own experiences, would be more likely to gravitate to something that could actually be used outside a match. Many of the martial arts lessons taught in the west are designed for controlled environments; in some Japanese forms, for example, you can get docked points at a match if you don't make proper noises of effort. But Krav Maga is very much treated as a defense technique, not a game. It's designed to let you kill someone in an instant if you have to. 
> 
> Furthermore, for a character as curious as the Harry in my story, helping come up with a new style of fighting from both a muggle-defense and a magical combat perspective seemed really cool. 
> 
> So yeah. I tried to make this realistic based on my research, but there's only so much the internet can tell you. Hope I got things right enough for anyone in the audience that knows more about this than me!


	34. Andy's Lab

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andy and Remus talk

Andromeda was mixing up a batch of pepper-up in the main potions lab, tucked in an outbuilding on Potter grounds. As opposed to the ostentatious door in the basement of the manor outlined in neon paint and dozens of spray-painted skulls and crossbones. Andy could swear Harry was getting more obnoxious with her color choices every day. Now it wasn’t just loud hair, but loud clothes, loud socks, loud spray paint! 

Then again, it was good to see the girl marking her territory so thoroughly (and yes, Andromeda was consenting to use werewolf terminology in this case). As the child’s primary healer, in both mind and body, Andromeda had been allowed to see every memory Harry gave the DMLE, as well as the tamer ones she exposed to the public. But memories could only tell so much about someone’s trauma. Over two weeks out, and Andy just barely had the bones of a treatment plan together. 

The child was reticent during the family therapy, and entirely silent during the one-on-one sessions (assuming she could be dragged away from her laboratory at all). Although she was more active in the family sessions, there was clear deflection going on. Harry mainly interacted with Sirius, then with Remus and James, and barely with Lily at all. 

Andromeda was unsure if it was a fear of women, or of mothers, or just Lily’s personality that was turning Harry away. Regardless, it was taking a toll on both Potters. Harry couldn’t calm down when Lily was in the room, and Lily couldn’t stop projecting long enough to see the daughter right in front of her. 

As a matter of fact, the only therapy type that showed any kind of progress was familiar therapy. Harry was extremely close to her owl; the bird was oftentimes perched in the same room as the witch. She functioned both as an emotional support animal and a good tool. The one session where Hedwig was present, Harry had still not spoken, but was willing to do a quick training exercise with the bird. It was a slow start, but Andy hoped that helping the bond between witch and familiar along would diffuse some of Harry’s defenses. 

The witch had a rather large personal bubble, although she could tolerate people crossing it, there was definitely a panic response there. One that animagus forms shot right past. When it became clear in the hospital that Harry disliked contact with humans, but welcomed Padfoot, Andromeda had immediately started easing the child into familiarity with her father’s animagus form. There seemed to be a direct connection between Harry’s familiarity with the animal form, and her trust of the wizard who possessed it, which was why Andromeda supported Harry running with her family on full moons. 

Of course, Harry’s animagus form also presented a wrinkle in treatment. It was a hotly debated topic amongst the medical community, whether the personality changed when one became an animagus to suit the animal’s instincts. Several legilimens who researched the topic posited that a person could only become an animagus once they had internalized the instincts of their forms. However, many transfiguration experts theorized that the form was innate, and the instincts transferred after the first change. Neither hypothesis explained the situation entirely, leading the handful of healers who treated animagi (a rather small community that Andromeda was happy to join) to ignore the theories all together. After all, while the why of things could help a great deal in discerning a person’s reasons, it wasn’t like being animagus could be undone. 

Andy mused over the problem as she added some flobberworms to the stewing potion. The large social animal made sense, it fit well with the overall family dynamic…

Something in that thought tugged and Andy. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She tried to sus it out, but then shrugged as she took the potion of the burner and began bottling. It would come to her eventually.

She had just finished labeling the bottles when there was a knock on her door. 

“One moment!” the healer called, checking the brewing counters for anything that might be dangerous. Nope, all her nastier ingredients were stowed away, and the polincus tincture boiling off over in the corner had a few more days before it needed fussed with…

“Come in!” she called, washing her hands and checking the clock. It was late, almost ten, and she wondered why anyone needed her. She hoped it wasn’t anything with Harry; night terrors would oftentimes wait to rear their ugly heads until the victim actually felt safe enough to start processing things. The addition would be temporarily bad, but good in the long term once Andy got Harry through them. Well, Sirius and Remus and James got Harry through them, with Andy’s advice. Still, this seemed a bit earlier than Andy would have expected…

“Andy, something happened the other day.” Remus muttered, rubbing his hands as he hunched next to the door. Once he started talking though, he seemed to rally, straightening up until Andy could see his eyes properly under the shaggy hair. 

“Something happened, and at the time I thought it was a good thing. But now… the more I think on it, the more worried I’m getting. And you weren’t there, and the more I think the more I think that was on purpose. And if Harry’s worried about what you might say, that should be signal enough not to trust it…”

Andy raised an eyebrow. Interesting. Not that Harry was dodging her, that was something Andy figured out a week ago, but that Remus noticed and was worried enough to ask for help.

She softened her expression, and started cleaning off one of the counters in the middle of the room, with two stools on either side. “Why don’t you sit down and tell me about it?” 

While he gathered himself, Andy pulled up every bit of information she knew about adult therapy. A bit manipulative perhaps, but the muggles had some great ideas about treating abuse. One was that even an adult who, say, faced continuous discrimination stemming from a traumatic physical assault in early childhood, could still need help dealing with the ramifications. Another was that children who were kidnapped, as Harry may as well have been, weren’t the only ones traumatized. Learning to raise a mentally damaged child could be just as traumatic on the parents. 

Other healers focused only on the child, giving the parents instructions, but never accounting for the fact that those same guardians could be hurting. And that, in turn, caused pain to the child. But unfortunately, no matter how much the entire family needed help to get through difficulties like this, the wizarding world simply wasn’t ready for the approach. Especially conservative countries like Britain. So while Andy knew healers on the continent who used more wholistic, family-based approaches, she had never been allowed to use those skills herself. 

Until now, and thank Merlin. If she could make this work, and find a way to market it to patients as proof family therapy was necessary and good without infringing to much on the Marauder’s privacy, she might finally get some of her other problem-patients the help they actually needed. 

“Harry wanted to talk to the four of us, so we all sat down to talk.” Remus started. Andy shook herself out of her reverie, and watched the patient in front of her, rather than the one in the distant house. 

“She talked about how what she did at the Tournament wasn’t the end of her plans. That she has other things she wants to accomplish. And she’s waiting to start a bunch of them, but there was one she wanted started now. But she doesn’t have the authority, so she showed us and asked us to help.”

Andy nodded and smiled slightly at the nervous man. “Yes, that’s probably a good thing. If she comes to you for help of her own free will. It means she trusts you enough to not say no, or to not get angry. This is a good thing Remus!”

“That’s what I thought!” Remus exclaimed, running fingers through his hair. He sounded oddly exasperated though, as if this wasn’t such a relief.

“But then I started thinking about it. And what she asked us to do… I don’t know what she’s after! She acted like she wanted us here, for the past year, and the moment we’re all together and figuring out how to take care of her, she starts pushing us out! And we were all so excited that she trusted us, we just agreed to it!”

Andy put a hand on his arm. “Back up. What she asked you to do. Does it hurt anyone?”

“Not directly! But Andy, she asked us all to move out! Not in so many words, she explicitly said we could still be here, but she wants us doing things that would take us out of the house and leave her alone again!”

The whole plan spilled out; reforming Hogwarts (about bloody time), the founders’ families taking active roles (made plenty of sense) Harry’s plan (and Andy wanted to see those binders so badly they could clue her in to so much)…

When Remus finally ran out of steam, she made a point of folding her hands and straightening as if to gather her thoughts. 

“What do you want me to tell you Remus?”

He gaped for a moment.

“Well.. I don’t.. I mean… what to do? This isn’t healthy, right? Pushing us away like that?”

Andromeda glanced at her nails, picking at the one which had chipped mid-brewing. 

“I can’t tell you that Remus. Even if I knew enough about Harry’s state to advise you, and I don’t, that isn’t the point of why I’m here. At the end of the day, you are a parental figure. The group of you make the decisions. I can’t do that for you. What I can do is help you figure out your own thoughts. So, what is it that scares you? Is it that Harry made this plan? That it sends you back to Hogwarts? Or is it that she might not want you here?”

“No! its… its none of that really. Just… you said it was bad for her. That Hogwarts would be traumatic, and we should keep her from it. But if she wants us there, what does it say about how she feels towards us?”

And that… was a very good point damn it. 

“You said she lived with you as much as possible over last summer. Was that at your behest or hers?”

“Well, Sirius and I insisted, but she was all too eager to stay…”

“Part of me is tempted to say that she’s not ready for this, and is pushing you away accordingly. The rest of me… she clearly draws comfort from you and Sirius. She could get there with James. She might not know what she wants, and so she’s trying to push you away. She also might not want to feel that safety, and so she’s pushing things towards the level of danger she sees as normal.”

“That’s what I mean! It can’t be healthy!”

“Did you agree to the plan? Directly?”

“…I wasn’t thinking at the time. I didn’t realize until now it was such a warning sign.”

Andy held back a deep sigh.

“Remus, I didn’t finish. You agreed. If you go back on that, it might represent a breach of trust. However, if you stick to it, she might see you as not willing to fight. And you are absolutely right, if she’s trying to deny safety to herself, that isn’t healthy. But neither is eroding her trust in you.”

“So no mater what we do, she gets hurt?” The man looked genuinely crushed. That was the opposite of what Andy needed right now.

“Sometimes that’s how it is. Two steps forward, one back.”

An incredulous snort. “This is a pretty big step backwards.”

Andromeda tilted her head. “Not necessarily. Coming to you with her plans is a big deal. From your description, a lot of work went into them. And a positive way to channel her experiences, one that directs the focus onto helping others. It acknowledges that something is wrong with the way Harry was raised, that there is nothing we can do to change the past, and at the same time gives Harry a way to change the future. If she hadn’t started this already, I would have tried to get her a long-term goal plan by the end of the summer. But, she did it on her own.

“I do want to see those binders though. So much info about her thought process…”

Remus squinted a little and leaned forward over the counter. 

“Sirius said you were close to Cassiopeia, but I didn’t believe it until now. But it’s true, isn’t it? Except she channeled her nosiness into gossip mongering, and you channel it into patients.”

Andy had to let a laugh out at that. Of course nobody expected her to remember the family training after her disownment. 

Taking an accented affectation, she replied “I only use my powers for good.”

Remus smirked, then sobered. Damn it, he was almost out of that pit.

“So, we just let her push us away? And don’t… do anything?”

Andy shook her head. “Oh no, there’s plenty you can do! First off is looking over Hogwarts bi-laws. See how often you can be back here instead of at the castle. Establish a way to contact when you aren’t here-I seem to remember a certain younger cousin of mine with a gift for enchanting mirrors. Ted and I are more than happy to keep an eye on things as well. And, there’s nothing saying you cant do this for a year, giving Harry time to adjust to the whole family thing, and then decide working at Hogwarts isn’t for you and come back.

“There is something I want you to keep in mind though. She’s almost fourteen. Wizards can get emancipated that early. I’m not saying she is or should be treated as an adult, but her testing her own maturity and independence is normal. I’d say don’t make any more concessions for a while. Agreeing to work at Hogwarts is a big deal, you shouldn’t give ground for a while. 

“As a matter of fact, why not use this? She’s in that lab far to much. Eight hours a day at least?”

“Use this as an excuse to drag her out of it?” Remus asked hopefully.

Huston, we have cleared the depression pit. For now.

“Yes, exactly. Ease her off it, but encourage branching out. Remember, she’s not used to being safe around people. Find a constructive way to get her out. Board games, research, maybe even an experiment of your own. That would make it feel less like a chore, if she’s working the same parts of her brain as she would be in her lab.”

They talked for a few more minutes, bouncing activities ideas off each other. Remus actually made some very good points about Quidditch and Harry’s sudden distain for it over the last year, and her animagus form. 

Just as the werewolf left, an hour later and much happier, Andy called out to him. 

“Yes?” he asked, turning in the doorway as the waning moonlight made his hair silver.

“You’re doing good. You all are. It wont last forever, but it doesn’t have to. She loves you, hold on to that.”


	35. Meeting McGonagall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Education updates begin.

Minerva McGonagall nervously shuffled the papers on the table in the library. She wasn’t nervous. She WASN’T. She had nothing to be nervous about. They would come in and dismiss her from her position as they rightfully should and she would accept it with the grace due to a woman of her standing and reputation.

She had known, all those years ago, that those monsters could never be tested with a child, especially one that would need love and support after being orphaned. But she reported such to a bigger monster, one who cared not for what was right and good and just, who only cared for the people he made his tools. Every word, every platitude she had fallen for and it made her sick to her core. And so she had abandoned that child to thirteen years of hell. 

She had noticed Harry’s flinches and hidden winces that first year. That the girl was far smaller than she should be, to skinny to have been fed properly. That she quivered whenever an adult looked at her the wrong way, or when in a crowd, or when someone bigger than her came within fifty feet-and everyone was bigger than Harry Potter. Even now, the girl barely reached four and a half feet. 

Minerva had been watching, waiting for the girl to trust her enough to report the abuse. When it was clear Harry wouldn’t talk, the professor had gone to a higher authority, and Albus had said it would be taken care of. 

And then, the next day, McGonagall had the inexplicable urge to ignore the abuse signs in favor of getting Harry Potter onto the quidditch team. 

And when students turned up petrified? Ignored, she had Weasleys to discipline. When Sirius Black was given a kiss on sight order even though something told her he would never side with Voldemort, that the little abused third year who had cried all over her robes (another abuse report Albus had confounded her into forgetting) was simply confunded. After all, Harry Potter would never side with those who harmed her over the friends who gave her life meaning. And when a student was entered into a contest far above her age range in which she could very well loose her life? And Minerva could, acting in loco parentis, claim the contract null and void? Nope. The girl made her bed, now she’d lie in it.

And then those awful images played in the stadium, and all the spells controlling Minerva snapped like one of those rubber bands the muggleborns used to hold homework scrolls together under too much pressure.

She realized what she had done, all the things she had condoned in her school… and she was ashamed. 

Minerva had worked tirelessly, only sleeping one night in every three, in order to protect the children the ministry put into her care. She spent two nights contemplating and digging up every memory of every abused student she could and passed the reports to Amelia, who had promised to look into them and thanked her for her work. But Minerva didn’t feel proud of the work she did, she just felt empty. How many turned to the Dark, that could have been stopped if she had intervened? How many would have died if she had done her duty and cut off those contagious, destructive ideas before more of her students could be added to either side’s army?

The nights that she did sleep, even now that things had slowed down and she managed it almost every night, were filled with nightmares. Of little Harry screaming in that cupboard, arm bent backwards and back in tatters. Of Ginny Weasley, trapped in her own mind twice as her family was ripped apart by a giant serpent. Of Neville Longbottom, brains splattered on the ground under a window while his relatives ate pie.

She had weathered each blow to the school with as much stoicism as she could muster. Hogwarts would, after all, outlast her by far. She saw two of her professors revealed to be Death Eaters. Helped her staff through interview after interview with aurors trying to determine who knew what Albus had been up to. She held crying children in her arms and sang them to sleep- something she had done for no child since her little brother, who’d died of dragon pox when he was five. And each night she prayed that now, free of the spells, what she did would have some meaning, would make up for all the pain. 

And now her time at Hogwarts was at an end. It had been a good run, almost her entire life spent in these hallowed halls. 

When she had heard from Lily, Minerva had been nervous, sad, happy and afraid all at the same time. When Lily asked for a meeting between Professor Minerva McGonagall and the Lords Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, as well as their heiress, she had been heartbroken, but tried to hide it. After all, she had been Harry’s HOH, she should have still done something, compulsion spells or no. 

They had set up the first meeting three days before, in the Headmaster’s Office. She had arranged tea and cakes, and ensured all the documents they would need to select a new Headmaster were in easy reach. Only for a Patronus to show up instead of her guests, a silver wolf, informing her that due to an illness the meeting would be delayed. Lily had later floo called, explaining that Harry, poor dear, had some kind of flashback and had to be taken home. Of course, ever the Gryffindor, the girl still wanted to attend the meeting, so Minerva had suggested changing the venue to somewhere not so fraught with memories of Albus. And so, the library was to be the place of Minerva’s sentencing. 

The four entered in modest robes of their house colors-Remus in black rather than yellow because Merlin forbid the man wear something colorful for once, he might actually get noticed by someone! James was in some kind of floating chair controlled with an array of gems. So the rumors were true, James Potter had lost the use of his legs. The bit of her that still held her emotions (which was squashed in a far corner of her mind to allow her to keep composure. Inside a box. Of titanium. With chains around it. Pluss a few trolls and dragons to beat any escapees into submission.) sobbed that such a bright man would be forever bound to his ass. The part of her that enjoyed snarking (which was in an opposite corner of her mind likewise restrained) commented that at least he couldn’t out run her anymore. Remus looked better than she had seen him in years; he had a healthy glow and a thin smile on his lips. Lily was radiant, as normal, and hiding behind her hair until she had examined the room and determined there was nobody present to see her that she didn’t already know. Sirius was also looking good, although she noticed he was still very thin and his finger tips had a strange blue-black tinge to them. 

Behind them skipped a young girl with black hair and a white sundress, revealing the masses of scar tissue covering her limbs, neck, and face. When she turned her head enough Minerva could see the facial scaring clearly, the old professor realized who it must be. 

It was Harry. Even with the strange scars, the girl’s green eyes peered searchingly into all the corners and shadowed places of the room. The scars were innumerable, but the one that caught Minerva’s eye the most was a word, spelled out backwards above the top of the dress, reading “FREAK” in big, red letters, and Minerva felt herself getting sick all over again. 

“Minnie!” Black gushed, clearly unaware of Minerva’s thoughts. “So good to see you! Why, you don’t look a day over ninety.”

“Shut your mouth Sirius Orion Black or I will set you scrubbing cauldrons for the next month.” She snapped, the snarky part apparently having used the distraction her emotions provided to effect an escape. 

“But professor.” Black pouted, giving her his biggest puppy dog eyes. 

“Sirius. Knock it off.” Lily reprimanded. 

Minerva tuned out the bickering for several moments to watch Harry. The scars were many and everywhere, some looked like they formed a pattern, although she could not identify it from the current distance. The teenager was slowly making her way to the bookshelves, seemingly oblivious to the world around her, reached for a book at random, and plopped down on the floor, back to the shelf, facing the door. The squeak of the adults pulling out chairs and sitting down brought Minerva back to the moment at hand. 

“Well, let’s get started shall we?” Remus said, pulling out and unshrinking a folder filled with papers. 

Minerva gulped. This was it. She was going to be fired. 

“Now, first of all, Hogwarts needs a new Headmistress. We would like it to be you, if you are amenable.” Remus said. 

What. The. Bloody hell. 

“You… You want me? To run the school?” Minerva was absolutely gob smacked, and struggled just to continue. “After everything that happened, you’d trust me with that? I couldn’t even protect one child and now you want me in charge of over three hundred?” she choked out. 

Sirius looked at her searchingly. “Well, all joking aside, you are the only qualified person we know.” Sirius deadpanned. 

“Minerva, you aren’t actually blaming yourself for what Albus did are you?” Remus asked while stirring a ridiculous amount of sugar into his tea. “Because none of it was your fault. I caught what was going on twice and even I never managed to stop him. And I wasn’t by his side nearly every day. He fooled us all, and you couldn’t have known.”

“But I should have. Should have listened to the students when they told me what was happening to them…”

“Yes, and the long list of arrests Amelia can attribute to you despite all the mind altering spells you were under is a credit to your skills.” James cut her off. “Besides, who else are we going to ask? Fudge? Remus?”

“Hey! Don’t you dare put me in a category with that creep!” Remus complained. James just smirked. 

“The point.” Lily breathed, “Is that we need someone we trust, who knows the school to be its new Headmistress. We have a lot of changes coming, and we want to make sure we have someone from the school’s old administration helping us with the transition. And that’s you. Make no mistake, there is a lot that has gone on here that needs to stop. But we will be making changes, and amidst those ,there needs to be some degree of consistency. We think you can offer that. So, will you help us put changes in place to prevent Hogwarts’s current problems, or will we have to ask Filius?” Lily inquired. 

Minerva stared into the green eyes, looking for any sign of falsehood. She saw none. They were trusting her, actually trusting her with the children. She felt the pieces that had been scattered by Albus’s betrayal link together into an iron ball of will. 

“Yes, I will be the Headmistress. I thank you for your trust in me. I wont let you down.”

They gave her the relevant papers, and performed the ritual to transfer control of the wards to her. It was rather quick, just a quick runic circle drawn out by Harry and a handful of elven assistants (and Minerva wanted to know where that girl had learned runes) and a vow sworn in the presence of the witnesses. The wards snapped in place like old friends, house elves popped in to give a quick vow, and the group went on to business.

“Now.” Remus began when everyone had retaken their seats (and Harry her book). “Once, over half the magical children in our nation, plus a significant portion of the rest of Europe, attended Hogwarts. Now, it’s less than ten percent of the youngest generation. This happened for a variety of reasons, but the end result is the same. Modern witches and wizards are in many cases forced to choose between magic and the ability to make a living. Hogwarts has become the school for the rich, elite, and those given political favors, rather than for all children. We intend to fix that.”

They went over the plans for several hours, both long and short term. James had a plan to give credit for tuition to anyone who already payed it towards their payment plans, should those already enrolled choose to switch to the old method of doing things, and to shift incoming students to the older payment method by the end of the next five years. Remus had a new discipline plan, including consistent points for common offenses and a system by which students could lodge complaints of unfair deductions. Sirius had a new ward scheme drawn up, to compensate for all the wards Albus had let down in order to give Voldemort a way in, as well as a plan for fire, evacuation, and other emergency drills to be handled throughout the year. And Lily was preparing contract options and recommendation lists for new teachers. 

Minerva was shocked when James told her of all the money Hogwarts had sitting in a vault, that the Headmaster could not touch for the past century and a half. No wonder tuition had gone up so much, the normal income sources had been cut off by the Ministry literally stealing property and selling it to muggles, something Ted Tonks had already written up a lawsuit about. The plan to hire extra teachers, for when the class sizes would expand, as well as to start offering muggle classes so students who wished could find employment in the muggle world, was unexpected, but made perfect sense. Minerva remembered when she went to Hogwarts having at least two teachers covering every core subject, and that half of her classmates were going to work in the muggle world rather than the magical. She hadn’t realized muggle advancements made that nearly impossible, and was contributing to the dip in class sizes. She had thought it was just due to the population under strain from the wars, but apparently, she was wrong. 

The common rooms were ingenious, and the founders’ heirs were actually doing something about Filch. They weren’t firing the bitter old man, which Minerva would have preferred, but it would do for now. And the solution for DADA had never been tried before. Minerva was nervous about changing the new class to an elective, but when they explained that students would need the schedule space for new classes in the coming years, she decided that it was a small price to pay. And with Ms. McKinnon as the language instructor, should she accept, the younger years would have plenty of options to fill out their schedules. 

She was most put out by the idea of resorting, but after all the meddling she had gone along with, she supposed it would be fine. After all, if the Hat had never been tampered with, it would just confirm the previous placings. 

Part of her shivered in fear at the idea that the Marauders would be the heads of house, but when they explained the bylaws to her and how they had been broken by allowing teachers to head houses, she was forced to agree they were not only the best but the only options, unless she wanted Irma and Poppy in charge of two houses and two others she did not know or trust. This way, at least the heads could be trusted to lookout for students, especially after what happened to Harry, and they would fulfill other administrative roles in addition, repairing some of Albus’s damage. So, while she would never have thought of many of their ideas, she agreed that changes were necessary and was willing to go along with their plans. And if anything went wrong, she would just point at Black. 

The meeting certainly did not go how she planned. And the fact that Harry would not return to Hogwarts as a student made Minerva sad, but she understood the thinking. After the flashback a few days before, she couldn’t blame them for keeping their daughter home. 

Before they left. Lily requested that each of Harry’s teachers put together a placement test, to see where Harry really was. Apparently, if she could get the professor’s approval, Harry would take the relevant OWLs over the summer, which pleased Minerva greatly. She had always known Potter was slacking, but now that she knew it was intentional, she was far less worried about Harry’s work ethic. 

McGonagall sat down to dinner that night with the other teachers remaining, and discussed the new changes coming to the school, as well as passing on the request for a placement test. All the teachers agreed to the plan heartily. Then, she began to eat her dinner, while Filius asked;

“So, when do I get an assistant professor to help with my classes?”

“Mrow.”

“Excuse me?’

Minerva tried to reply again. 

“Woof.”

What the hell.

“Cluck. Neigh. Caw.”

She looked at her plate carefully, before lifting it up, to find a small piece of paper taped to the bottom.

CURTESY OF THE MARAUDERS.

As her coworkers laughed, Minerva just shook her head. What had she just signed herself up for?


	36. Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily gets off her but.

Lily watched her daughter carefully over dinner. She and James were discussing some financial thing that went way over Lily’s head, with Ted butting in with advice. She loved James when he got this way, all animated on a subject, bouncing in his chair and waving his hands. He played the goofball a lot in school, but it was when he got excited that the true intelligence came out. Sirius and Remus were discussing runes, Remus chipping in to explain some complex warding concepts that Sirius needed help with to decipher Hogwarts’s security scheme. That conversation Lily did understand, but ignored in favor of her daughter. 

In the hospital, Harry had been alternately excitable and quiet. One second bouncing around the room like a rubber ball, the next hiding under the bed shaking. But that girl Lily could get-it was the daughter she had left behind when she “died”, the baby girl who liked to smear food in her parent’s hair cause it looked funny and steal her daddy’s glasses, not because she particularly cared for shiny things, but because it made him yell and pretend-scold her. 

But the second they got home, it was like a switch flipped. She didn’t want to spend time with them, all she did was hole up in that lab of hers, avoiding everybody and everything. And that was not okay in Lily’s book, nor did it seem entirely normal behavior. The only time Harry came out was dinner, where she usually requested stories of the Marauders sand their adventures, but never seemed to tell any stories about herself.

And then a few nights before, she had been scolded about the letters. And suddenly, there was some life back in her. Like the switch was flipped back. She was energetic, and full of ideas. And they were good ideas. How many times at Hogwarts had Lily wondered about the small class sizes? The empty rooms? The class offerings that were so limited compared to those listed in Hogwarts a History? And Lily had just shrugged and done her best in what she could and moved on. But Harry, she had done something about it. Something that wouldn’t even benefit herself, that she wouldn’t get credit for, that helped hundreds of other kids.

Lily found herself going over those memories Harry had shown them, pushing past the pain of what was happening to her baby and looking for her reactions. Harry never cried. Never begged. Never tried to run if it was an adult going after her. She just took it. And when it was over and the abuser moved on, she would pick herself up, clean and dress whatever wounds she had as best she could, and continue without a tear. 

Something was wrong. No kid should react like that. Lily supposed it could be that her daughter was magical, and magic protected her, but Lily didn’t think so. The Harry of those memories was oddly mature. Reading at age four (right before Petunia pulled her from behind the rose bush by her hair and dragged her into the kitchen to clean the floor with lye that burned her hands) baking at age five (and getting reprimanded by Vernon for making herself food even though Dudley had ordered her to make him a cake). Something had made her daughter much more mature than she had any right to be. Yes, she still got silly, but even underneath the energetic craziness Harry had shown at the hospital ,there was an edge.

Lily didn’t know what yet, or how, but her daughter acted like an adult. And for more proof, there was the binders! Harry had said over fifty, but Lily started to think there were more like two hundred of them, each filled with plans and ideas and contingencies. It was a work of art, how ideas were woven together to create not a plan with prescribed steps, but a malleable outline. One where steps could be exchanged to suite the needs and external variables. 

And it made Lily proud in a way nothing yet had. Lily started to scold herself over that. Surrounded by extraordinary people, Lily had forgotten that most witches could never perform a ritual like Harry did, or enchant that wheelchair, or even expose their darkest moments to the world in order to protect thousands from the depregations of a few powerful men. 

But there were two questions nagging Lily that would not go away.

“How do I help her?”

And

“Does she need my help at all?”

So, as momentarily insulted by the position of secretary Lily had been, she had excepted it. Because fixing Hogwarts, like making the chair for James, had filled Harry with life. Suddenly all the scars seemed to fade away, leaving the happy baby Lily had left behind. And, while that might not be ALL her daughter was any more, it was still PART of her. And seeing that smile was worth it. 

And then the incident at Hogwarts happened. One minute, the five of them were walking down the seventh floor hallway chatting, the next Harry was out cold on the floor and twitching. Two minutes of panic were followed by twenty minutes of groggy, complaining teenager before they’d bundled her up and dragged her home. 

There was more to that as well, Lily suspected. Harry was extremely secretive, apparently didn’t even know Sirius and Remus knew she had the… Andy called them seizures, although Lily wasn’t sure. But the only way to know the real frequency was to get Harry to trust adults for once. 

She knew it wouldn’t be easy. Lily had a habit of jumping to conclusions, of being too rigid when she should be flexible (regardless of what Harry thought), of going off on people just because they think differently than her. And she would work on it. 

Because Harry loved. It was hard to see in the beginning, but it was there. It was in the way Harry wanted so badly to learn who each of them was and what they enjoyed. In how she went out of her way to cover up because Remus didn’t like the scars. How she would follow Sirius in his garage and ask him questions about his own project (currently building another motorcycle to replace the one Hagrid had apparently broken on accident). How she would read over Moony’s shoulder, in a ridiculously uncomfortable position, for an hour or two just to talk to him about the book when he finished. In how she made the chair for James. 

But Lily hadn’t had anything with Harry yet. When they had gone shopping, it was all skipping between the racks with Sirius or Remus and bringing the occasional purchase to James for approval. When they ate dinner, she only rarely asked Lily a question.

Lily was going to have to work for it, she realized, not the other way around. Harry was who she was, and that was only going to change slowly, if at all. Harry had nothing to prove to Lily. But Lily had everything to prove to Harry. 

She didn’t know how yet. But she’d find a way to connect with her daughter. To be the one that made her face light up the way the boy’s did.

That night, after Harry had gone to bed, Bertrand the Badger in her arms 

(You’re fourteen years old! To old for dolls!

Yes, Sirius, but you forget, I went doll-less since the Dursleys. I have lost time to make up for, so fuck off.

Uh huh. And it has nothing to do with who sent the doll…

Shut up or so help me I will shave KICK ME onto Padfoot and then lock you into your animagus form in the middle of Hogsmeade so help me!)

She knocked on the door to one of the guest rooms.

“Lily? Is something wrong?”

“No, just. Andy, I think I need your help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, first off, thank you to everyone who read and has given advice or just plain encouragement. It has meant so much to me.
> 
> I've learned a lot in the over half a year I've been working on and updating this story. However, that is now kind of biting me in the but. 
> 
> I had no idea what I was doing when I started this, and I think I was a bit to ambitious. I look back at my mentality when I started and cringe. However, I know I wouldn't have grown this much if I hadn't started posting-and, getting feedback. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for making me cringe at my earliest work.
> 
> The problem is I know all the things I should have done differently, and applying everything I've learned takes time. Like going back through and making a more comprehensive outline, or learning how to balance dialog and description.
> 
> So. Here's the plan. 
> 
> I have a few ideas rattling around in my head that I want to write up, applying my new knowledge and everything I've learned. So, I'm going to start writing up some of those, so that I can start fresh, and apply that new knowledge from beginning to end. 
> 
> One of those stories is actually already almost finished, I just need to wrap up the last chapter. Which brings me to...
> 
> This story (House Elves) is going to continue being worked on, in between the other fics I want to write up (these other fics look to be much shorter). I have no idea what the new schedule will look like, but House Elves is definitely on hiatus for at least three months so that...
> 
> I can publish that fic I mentioned that's almost finished! It's called Mad-eye's Little Marauder, and it looks to be eleven chapters and over twenty thousand words. It isn't very in depth, but I kind of like the cursory approach to that story. Lets me get it out of my system quick and easy. Mad-eye's Little Marauder will start posting in two weeks, and will update either weekly or bi-weekly (I'm leaning towards the former).
> 
> And on the topic of Mad-eye's Little Marauder, anybody know of a way to get a beta reader and show them your drafts through AO3? I'd like to have one, there are some things in that fic I definitely want a second opinion on, but I dont know how to go about that sort of thing. I very well might not use that advice for Mad-eye's Little Marauder, but I think it would be good to know for later. So anything you guys know would be a help. 
> 
> Once Mad-eye's Little Marauder is out in the big wide world, if I dont have anything else finished or close to it, I'll go back to updating House Elves until something else is far enough along to take over. (I have a time-travel fix-it idea that's looking really fun...)
> 
> All right! So, hope you guys have a fun holiday season, and see you in a bit!


End file.
